There have been some roadblocks on the way to fully adopting Linux in the special effects industry, however. Working with the open-source community hasn't always been a smooth ride.

Feeney says that the open-source community is very unforgiving with what he terms as "wrong behaviors." One of those behaviors has to do with the intersection of proprietary and open-source software.

"We believe very strongly that the infrastructure issues point directly to open source," says Feeney. "But there is also the fact that specialized intellectual property exists at the studios. So what we have to contend with is the involvement of the open-source community with respect to the shared proprietary concerns of the industry, without getting everyone upset that those proprietary pieces aren't given back to the community."

Fortunately, the problem may be one of volume over quality, as many of the fundamentalists in the open-source world also tend to be the most vocal. But a large portion of the open-source world expects that corporations have proprietary concerns and the two can find a middle ground. The solution will be in finding the right licenses for the industry to use.

The biggest issue -- as it is with many industries considering open source -- is what to do about the GNU General Public License (GPL), the prevalent license used on open-source software. Does the VFX industry know what the GPL is, what it means and how it relates to proprietary software? Feeney says probably not. "In our community, the open-source push is great when you need to reach consensus and standards." But, he adds, the industry relies on differentiation through specialized approaches. To them, the GPL doesn't appear to allow them to keep those differentiations. Or at least it doesn't make it clear how it can be done.

Still, Feeney says the VFX industry needs to approach the problem from the right point of political correctness. "It's important we get guidance from the open-source community about how best to approach them to get them interested in supporting the ongoing needs and requirements of the film industry."

Feeney says the industry wants to be marching in lock step with one another without having to build their own version of Linux. "We don't want to make a Hollywood branch of a [version of] Linux, for example ... To us that means adoption of single solutions which can be incorporated into a commercial package without the rules imposed by a specific license."

And Leonard says he'd still like to see the open-source community look toward entertainment as a partner in innovation, not just in recognition. "One of the hard parts of dealing with open-source is that it's still viewed as a bit of a hackers' world: As long as you're willing to hack at the code you'll get what you want." A reality for the VFX industry is that as a business they need to find a way to channel the talent in the open-source world so that they can get value from it.

"The VFX industry is willing to take risks," says Leonard. "Our solutions don't have to be wrapped with a pretty bow -- we're willing to work together to make these things work. I think the application for what we solve together with open source can be applied to a much larger community. Entertainment is a place where we can push the high end for innovative use of Linux. And it is a visible place where Linux can get momentum to use across broader industries."

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