Description
REVOLUTION OS tells the inside story of the hackers and computer programmers who rebelled against Microsoft and the idea of proprietary software to create GNU, Linux, and the Open Source movement. Shot on location in Silicon Valley on 35mm film and in widescreen, REVOLUTION OS captures an offbeat group of characters who are three-parts libertarian, two-parts communist, and one-part bad garage band.
Customer Reviews:
Not Definitive, But Worthwhile.......2007-08-01
Revolution OS is a reasonably-accurate snapshot of the Open Source movement at a particular moment in time. It presents some of the major participants and their philosophies and stories, focusing on the breakthrough to public awareness and commercial acceptance of Open Source software in general and the Linux operating system in particular. The differences between the Free Software ethos and the marketing-friendly Open Source approach is also explored in some depth. Many other aspects of the Free Software, Open Source, and Linux stories get only cursory treatment, and therefore the documentary is neither balanced nor good evangelism. While this is regrettable, the interested viewer can follow up by reading the books and essays available from many of the people profiled, including Richard Stallman, Linus Torvalds, and Eric Raymond.
There's still plenty of room for a more definitive documentary, but Mr. Moore should get credit for being the first to give the public at large a glimpse of some of the people behind the Open Source phenomenon. Even those who will, like me, learn nothing new from this film will enjoy the chance to see and hear people who have had a profound impact on their life but who they have only "met" online.
A wonderful compilation .......2007-07-04
A wonderful documentary about the GNU movement and birth of Linux. Some hard to find interviews and recordings of some key events. The documentary has been very well prepared, with all necessary details in place.
I read Eric Raymond's Cathedral and the Bazaar straight after the book, which led me to rethink my business model. I would recommend it to all young entrepreneurs.
Revolution OS.......2007-03-09
Great movie. Wow the part about Cygnus was wonderful. The Open Source movement misses the point on freedom but that is an idealogical debate that movies like this are bound to spark. The producer was on TLLTS in about episode 179 or so and that was sooo good. I heard about the movie from google first and downloaded parts of it but I did actually buy it before the guy was on TLLTS. The Linux Code movie is also being pirated and I learned of and got it from google video now I want to buy it but it seems the company has gone belly up already. Free media and software companies need to do well and we need them to do very well. We need this stuff. The point of GNU FREE is not free as in cost. It is not even about better quality. The point of GNU FREE is not about making the rich CEOs of Red Hat and Novel even richer. It is FREEDOM FREEDOM all the time and in every way. All of the other points are just tools to acquire and spread that FREEDOM. BUY THIS MOVIE!
a valuable record.......2007-02-07
I'll be upfront: one reason I like this documentary is that J.T.S. Moore included some of the photographs I contributed. In any case, the movie is a valuable historic record, showing many of the prominent figures in free and open source software in a direct way. They tell us how they see things in their own words, which you don't often get to see.
Even as something of an insider, I didn't expect the film to be as interesting as it turned out to be. You don't normally think of computer geeks as feature film material and I'm still surprised that it ever got made, much less sold on Amazon. Kudos to Moore and his team for giving us a very watchable film as well as a historic document.
boring.......2006-01-28
This movie is mostly interviews about free software philosophy, open source philosophy, and the rise of linux in the business world. I found the film dull, and I am a linux geek. I do give it three stars because I can see where some may be entertained or informed by the discussions the interviewer had with Stallman, Torvalds, etc. My wife now better understands why I wear a tux hat :) I also enjoyed watching Stallman's manerisms and listening to him speak, since I've heard that he may have Asperger's Syndrome (as does my son, which is why that interested me).
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DVD
DVD
General
| Documentary
| Genres
| DVD
| Video
Pirates of Silicon Valley
Triumph of the Nerds
Hackers - Wizards of the Electronic Age
Biography - Bill Gates: Sultan of Software (A&E DVD Archives)
Modern Marvels - The Creation of the Computer (History Channel)