The Code - Making Linux (2001)XviDAC3ro_sub+fi_sub-CasTaN.avi

Documentary | linux | microsoft | capitalism | open source code | silicon valley

Not much that "geeks" don't already know, but still worthy 6 August 2002
by Christopher E. Meadows (robotech@eyrie.org) (Springfield, Missouri)

This film, originally made as a documentary for Finnish television, is currently floating around on the giFT
peer to peer network--a network which is largely restricted to Linux users, so it is unsurprising that it can
be downloaded from over a dozen different people there.
Through this film, Linux is traced from its early days as a hobby project of Linus Torvalds's, through its
rapid rise in popularity and number of users, to the dot-com boom and bust, and beyond. The differing
ideologies of Richard "GNU" Stallman and Eric "Open Source" Raymond are also explored. Anybody who
has been following Linux for very long, reading websites like Slashdot and Eric Raymond's "Cathedral and
the Bazaar" essay will probably already know most this. However, for those people, the film does offer a
chance to see and hear these Linux icons talk--putting faces and voices to people who might otherwise
have been just words on a screen.
Despite its Finnish origin, most of this documentary is in English--either the naturally-spoken English of most
of the Linux personalities, or a heavily-accented voiceover narrator--with Finnish subtitles. Only a few of the
interviewees (Linus Torvalds's parents, employees of Chinese Linux corporations) are untranslated (since, after
all, the show was originally aimed at Finns).

film language is english with romanian subtitle embeded