Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the VFX industry's adoption of Linux-based operating systems is that the cooperative environment resulting from the Linux Summits (a second event was held in 2001) has helped loosen the veil of secrecy that has plagued the industry. Leonard says creative content companies have always been very protective of their works. "The Dreamworks and ILMs of the world understand the separation between the technology as plumbing and the technology as discriminator. As we go forward, our companies are becoming better educated at an executive level about those things."

Pixar's VP of technology Darwyn Peachey says it's nice to see the openness that has evolved between the studios over the two years that they've been meeting to talk about Linux. "We're all competitors in one sense or another, but this has helped us share a little more than we historically have about our thoughts and plans. Not surprisingly, those problems are very common across the many studios. We're starting to see that if someone solves a problem that isn't central to the art we do, there is suddenly a feeling we can all benefit from it. That's encouraging. It's fun to see."

The old competitive nature that arose when two similar films were released at the same time is fading. "In fact," he adds, "it's hard to determine if one film hurts the other. If you go to a bunch of bad ones you won't want to go to any of them. So we all do a little better if the films are better."

"This is a fundamental shift in how we do business," says Leonard. "And there are two interesting parts to this. One is that we're moving towards commodity hardware in an open space. The other is the spirit of cooperation and community and infrastructure sharing that has never happened before. We were all very competitive companies that were not very interested in sharing at all. This Linux stuff is pulling us together."

Recent Stories