Bringing Free Software Down to Earth

Mark Shuttleworth, software entrepreneur and space tourist, believes that open-source software is not just for geeks. AS HE lays out his vision for the future of open-source software, Mark Shuttleworth is enthusiastic, but he looks tired. He has been up late negotiating yet another deal as part of his mission to bring open source to a wider audience.

A successful South African entrepreneur during the dotcom era, he wants open-source zealots to lose their religion and concentrate on ease-of-use instead. And he is putting his money where his mouth is. Since 2004, he has been using his fortune to fund the Ubuntu project, which makes a user-friendly version of Linux, the open-source operating system. Ubuntu is a Zulu and Xhosa term that roughly means “universal bond of sharing between humans”. Ubuntu’s slogan is “Linux for human beings”, and it is aimed at mainstream computer users. For although Linux is popular on servers, it is not, so far, used on many desktops.

Complete Article from Economist

Shrek 3 and Linux

Dreamworks says:

“All the big film studios primarily use Linux for animation and visual effects. Perhaps no commercial Linux installation is larger than DreamWorks Animation, with more than 1,000 Linux desktops and more than 3,000 server CPUs.

For Shrek 3, we will consume close to 20 million CPU render hours for the making of the film’, says DreamWorks Animation CTO Ed Leonard. ‘Each of our films continues to push the edge of what’s possible, requiring more and more compute power.’ Everyone knows Moore’s Law predicts that compute power will double every one and a half years. A little known corollary is that feature cartoon animation CPU render hours will double every three years. In 2001, the original Shrek movie used about 5 million CPU render hours. In 2004, Shrek 2 used more than 10 million CPU render hours. And in 2007, Shrek 3 is using 20 million CPU render hours.”