Hey,
one of the things I think of a lot, is how FOSS is not perceived as useful or useful. Big brands actually pay big bucks to have their brand portrayed in a movie. Computers, cars, software… But obviously FOSS products don’t have this kind of money (and honestly, I don’t think it would be wise to spend money that way either). But every now and then, FOSS products appear in popular fiction.
The first example I can think of, is Mr Robot using his hacking tools… (but this actually again also kinda confirms the stereotype that FOSS isn’t for the mere mortals).
I don’t think there are any movies that promote FOSS , instead there are so many hacking movies that might make you interested in particular thing then you automatically explore Linux because its part of your arsenal.
Gnu’s Not UNIX (and it’s not free or necessarily OSS) - but - the original Jurassic Park has the classic line “…this is a UNIX system, I know this…”
But - for all intents and purposes - UNIX via BSD is free… And many people in IT management roles just call everything that’s “UNIX-like” (i.e. Linux) UNIX…
That filesystem that the girl in JP was exploring, was on IRIX, SGI’s UNIX - and the file system would have been “xfs” - which Silicon Graphics made open source and it’s the default filesystem on RPM based distros like RHEL8 and Oracle Linux 8…
Well… Actually it was IRIX running in Jurassic Park - and was most certainly product placement because they were top of the line devices for 3D rendering.
So while it’s a POSIX system, I will also disqualify any Macbook or Android device being brought in the picture.
Yes, I did say Unix.
I wonder if Unix was open source when Irix appeared? @daniel.m.tripp thinks Irix was open source
I remember using FreeBSD in the 1990’s and that came with source.
I realize what you really would like is a modern Linux example.
In the early days before MS thought of the concept of creating a proprietary OS… the OS basically was tailored to the hardware, and the code was delivered together with the machine. Just as you could look into the electronics, you could look into the code.
There was no notion of using it elsewhere than on your own computer. There was no notion of selling software independent of the device.
The last line of the history block on this wiki page: IRIX - Wikipedia
Says:
HPE has not stated any plans for IRIX development or source code release.
For me, this kind of implies that it’s currently not open.
XFS got open sourced in 2000
Jurassic Park dates from 1993
XFS was not open source yet when it appeared in the movie.
XFS wasn’t what was on display. It was their 3D file manager (basically promoting their 3D rendering engine)
Those files being shown with a 3d filemanager WERE STORED (or would have been - I’m assuming) on an XFS filesystem - unless - she was actually browsing an NFS share - except - ultimately - that NFS share could have been hosted on a remote box running IRIX but stored on an XFS filesystem…
Yeah?
So you’re the arbiter of what is UNIX and what isn’t then? Yeah - I can imagine you being the hit of the party…
I consider my 2 MacOs MacBooks UNIX systems… The microkernel with some BSD that iPad and iPhone and AppleTV use - I don’t consider a UNIX. But you can make an iPad or iPhone “UNIX” by jailbreaking it and installing the BSD userland stuff…
you know anybody who can network 8 connection machines and debug 2 million lines of code fro what I bid for this job? because if you can I’d like to see you try.
Well… I actually didn’t talk about UNIX systems, I talked about FOSS applications. The focus being on the freedom promoting aspect rather than the technical architecture. So a Windows computer running LibreOffice would qualify.
I hope you’ll agree that both MacOS and Android haven’t done the best of jobs in creating an ecosystem where you can freely install and share applications.
And actually I am kind of fun on parties - admittedly I don’t talk that mutch about FOSS on those though. (unless it’s Software Freedom Day… my favorite party)
I didn’t say Irix was open source - I wrote that the Irix filesystem, XFS, was open sourced by Silicon Graphics - and it’s the default filesystem for modern RPM based distros (Red Hat 8, 9, Oracle Linux 8,9, CentOS 8/9 stream etc - dunno about Fedora but).
Another SGI product, that’s still sort of going is OpenGL - but I don’t believe they ever open sourced that.
I don’t know when BSD source code was made essentially “free” - but it’s not with a GNU OSS license, I can’t remember what license it’s under, but I seem to remember it’s one that Stallman doesn’t like - he obviously prefers GPL… Isn’t it just the BSD license?
It is called BSD Licence… it is like MIT Licence… totally free… you can build code into a proprietary system and then sell it . I can see why Stallman does not like it.
Yes… there’s a perspective difference in freedom here. You could argue that MIT is completely free because you can keep it open or closed at your individual preference.
GPL and copyleft licenses are free in the sense that they safeguard freedom for the society.
MIT licensed software can be embedded in software that will spy on its users, or require certain ideological or economical stances. GPL software can only be used in software when the user of the software also has insight into the code (and can change it, learn it, redistribute it). Note that it nowhere says that GPL software has to be distributed at no cost (so it doesn’t need to be free as in price).
Sometimes GPL is called a viral license, I rather call it a vacine license: it protects users against code being infected by hidden code.
Not sure if it’s that restrictive - e.g. LibreOffice and ffmpeg are two things that run on MS Windows and MacOS… I expect RMS would like the GPL to do that - but while a bit of a zealot and evangelist, I still think he’s also a pragmatist
