Open Source Gets Its Own TV Show

ChocLinux writes "A South African organisation has produced what it claims is the first television series dedicated to promoting open source software. The first episode of the show included an interview with Richard Stallman, who founded the GNU project, and Robin Rowe, who runs the Linux Movies Group, which promotes the use of Linux in Hollywood."

Comments

Interesting Fact

[zerman]

Most FOSS advocates don't need to watch a TV show promoting FOSS, they already use FOSS as much as they can. People who are not FOSS advocates won't bother to watch. Even if FOSS advocates did want to watch, they would probably rather do something on the computer than watch this TV show.

Re:Interesting Fact

[sik0fewl]

You're kinda skipping out on the people who are sort of interested in the topic of FOSS but aren't advocates.

For example, I watch all sorts of shows on the Outdoor Life Network or Discovery, including shows like Killer Instinct and Crocodile Hunter, but I don't go out looking for wild animals.

Re:Interesting Fact

[Quino]

I dunno ... personally I came across Richard Stallman, read and understood the basics of the GNU movement before even having heard of Linux. I, of course, decided to then try out Linux.

A bunch of nerds (basically) putting together an OS for fun (well, for deeper reasons as well, but as likely to be driven to tinker as any other reason), and not minding if someone else used it, was too tantalizing to not try (what the #$^&, right?)

I expected it to suck (I hadn't read The Cathedral and the Bazaar yet), since I fully expected the "too many cooks" syndrome. I was surprised to find that it worked well -- in some ways actually better than Windows (anger at MS started the search for an "alternative"), and in some ways not so well (several aborted attempts before I had both X and the net working out-of-the-box, using Mandrake many years ago).

Anyways, my intro to Linux as a non-programmer, and PC-computer-illiterate started with something similar to this TV show. It may or may not be a terribly effective advocacy program for the-OS-known-as-Linux, but I wouldn't discount the fact that there are many people that haven't heard or understand the open source movement, but would still be interested in tinkering, learning a little bit more how computers work, and maybe just running Linux. Not all nerds interested in computers are trained as computer nerds! :)

Yeah, but...

[Gogo Dodo]

...is the show itself open source? Can I re-edit the show?

Airing on the Fox network...

[Anonymous Coward]

It is tentatively titled "When Penguins Attack"

Ahh yes

[TheKidWho]

On todays show "Configuring your TV to run open source Beowulf software" "In Soviet Russia Open Sources You!" "But can it play OGG?" "Welcoming our Open Source bearing Geek Overlords!"

Nooooooooo!

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh sweet Lord, no. Not a Linux sitcom. All we need is a precocious four-year-old with lines like "I guess we all got a lot of recompiling to do!"

Guaranteed to jump the shark in Season Six when Stallman opens a taco stand.

You forgot something

[russint]

I think a link to the shows own homepage might be a good idea, here you go: http://www.go-opensource.org/go_open/

EMACS the show

[moosesocks]

Also coming soon, EMACS the show.

Be warned, you'll need to map Ctrl-Alt-Meta-Play to your remote in order to do anything useful with the show.

Vi pundits have also announced their own show. This one will automatically re-map all of the keys on your remote so that each key will have an unidentified cryptic function whose purpose is not revealed even after pressing the button.

Once the show starts, the viewer is greeted by a blank screen. This blank screen will remain indefinitely until the user figures out the remote-key combination to quit the program. Don't mess up, because then you might not be able to quit at all!

In order to actually watch the show, you will have to press an unidentified button on the remote which will allow you to watch the show.

One
Line
At
A
Time