Revolution OS
Promotional poster for two disc edition of Revolution OS
Directed by	J. T. S. Moore
Produced by	J. JTS Moore is American film director and producer. He's known primarily for the Revolution OS film (2001 about FOSS key people T. S. Moore
Written by	J. T. S. Moore
Starring	Richard Stallman Linus Torvalds Eric S. Raymond Bruce Perens
Music by	Christopher Anderson-Bazzoli
Editing by	J. Richard Matthew Stallman (born March 16 1953 often abbreviated " rms " is an American software freedom activist Linus Benedict Torvalds ( ˈtuːrvalds born December 28 1969 in Helsinki, Finland) is a Finnish software engineer Eric Steven Raymond (born December 4 1957 often referred to as ESR, is a Computer programmer, author and Open source software advocate Bruce Perens is a Computer programmer and advocate in the Open source community. T. S. Moore
Release date(s)	2001
Running time	85 min
Country	United States
Language	English
Official website
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Revolution OS is a 2001 documentary film made in the United States, directed by J. T. S. Moore, which traces the twenty-year history of GNU, Linux, open source, and the free software movement. A minute is a Unit of measurement of Time or of Angle. The minute is a unit of Time equal to 1/60th of an Hour or 60 The United States of America —commonly referred to as the English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States Documentary film is a broad category of visual expression that is based on the attempt in one fashion or another to " Document " reality The United States of America —commonly referred to as the JTS Moore is American film director and producer. He's known primarily for the Revolution OS film (2001 about FOSS key people GNU ( pronounced) is a computer Operating system composed entirely of Free software. Linux (commonly pronounced ˈlɪnəks Open source is a development methodology which offers practical accessibility to a product's source (goods and knowledge The free software movement (also known as open source movement, free and open source software movement and abbreviated FSM OSM or FOSSM) is a relatively

It features interviews with prominent hackers and entrepreneurs (and hackers-cum-entrepreneurs), including Richard Stallman, Michael Tiemann, Linus Torvalds, Larry Augustin, Eric S. Raymond, Bruce Perens, Frank Hecker and Brian Behlendorf. An entrepreneur is a person who has possession over a company enterprise, or Venture, and assumes significant accountability for the inherent risks and the outcome Richard Matthew Stallman (born March 16 1953 often abbreviated " rms " is an American software freedom activist Michael Tiemann is Vice President of Open Source Affairs at Red Hat Inc as well as President of the Open Source Initiative. Linus Benedict Torvalds ( ˈtuːrvalds born December 28 1969 in Helsinki, Finland) is a Finnish software engineer Larry Augustin is a venture capitalist and the former chairman of VA Software now known as SourceForge Inc Eric Steven Raymond (born December 4 1957 often referred to as ESR, is a Computer programmer, author and Open source software advocate Bruce Perens is a Computer programmer and advocate in the Open source community. Brian Behlendorf (Born March 30 1973 is a technologist computer programmer and an important figure in the Open-source software movement

Plot

Michael Tiemann interviewed in Revolution OS

The film begins in medias res, with glimpses of Raymond, a Linux IPO, Torvalds, the idea of Open Source, Perens, Stallman, then sets the historical stage in the early days of hackers and computer hobbyists when code was shared freely. In medias res, also medias in res ( Latin for "into the middle of things" is a literary and artistic technique where the Narrative Initial public offering (IPO, also referred to simply as a "public offering" is when a company issues Common stock or shares to the public for the first It discusses how change came in 1978 as Bill Gates, in his Open Letter to Hobbyists, pointedly prodded hobbyists to pay up. If you would like to experiment with Wikipedia please copy The Open Letter to Hobbyists was an Open letter written by Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, to early Personal computer hobbyists in Stallman relates his struggles with closed-source vendors at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab, leading to his departure to focus on the development of free software, and the GNU project. Free software or software libre is Software that can be used studied and modified without restriction and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified The GNU Project is a Free software, Mass collaboration project announced in 1983 by Richard Stallman.

Torvalds describes the development of the Linux kernel, the GNU/Linux naming controversy, Linux's further evolution and its commercialization. Linux is an operating system kernel used by a family of Unix-like Operating systems These are popularly termed Linux operating systems and The GNU/Linux naming controversy is a dispute among members of the Free and open source software community.

Raymond and Stallman clarify the philosophy of free software vs Communism and capitalism, and development stages of Linux. Communism is a Socioeconomic structure that promotes the establishment of an egalitarian, classless, stateless Society based Capitalism is the Economic system in which the Means of production are owned by private Persons and operated for Profit and where

Michael Tiemann discusses how he met Stallman in 1987, got an early version of Stallman's GCC, and founded Cygnus Solutions. The GNU Compiler Collection (usually shortened to GCC) is a set of Compilers produced for various Programming languages by the GNU Project Cygnus Solutions, originally Cygnus Support, was founded in 1989 by John Gilmore, Michael Tiemann and David Henkel-Wallace to provide

Larry Augustin describes combining GNU software with a normal PC to create a UNIX-like workstation which cost one third the price of a Sun workstation even though it was twice as powerful. GNU ( pronounced) is a computer Operating system composed entirely of Free software. A personal computer ( PC) is any Computer whose original sales price size and capabilities make it useful for individuals and which is intended to be operated Unix (officially trademarked as UNIX, sometimes also written as Unix with Small caps) is a computer A workstation, such as a Unix workstation, RISC workstation or Engineering workstation, is a high-end Microcomputer Sun Microsystems Inc ( is a multinational vendor of Computers computer components Computer software, and Information technology services He relates his early dealings with venture capitalists, the eventual capitalization and commodification of Linux for his own company, VA Linux, and its IPO. Venture capital (also known as VC or Venture) is a type of Private equity capital typically provided to immature high-potential growth companies SourceForge Inc ( formerly VA Software Corporation, VA Linux Systems, and VA Research, is the provider of the SourceForge Development Initial public offering (IPO, also referred to simply as a "public offering" is when a company issues Common stock or shares to the public for the first

Brian Behlendorf, one of the original developers of the Apache HTTP Server, explains how he started to exchange patches for the NCSA Web-Server daemon with other developers and how this led to the release of "a patchy" webserver, Apache.

Frank Hecker of Netscape discusses how it came to be that Netscape executives released the source code for Netscape's browser, one of the signal events which made Open Source a force to be reckoned with by business executives, the mainstream media, and the public at large. Netscape Communications (formerly known as Netscape Communications Corporation and commonly known as Netscape) is an American computer services company Corporate titles are titles conferred on individuals as a means of identifying their function in the Organization. Open source is a development methodology which offers practical accessibility to a product's source (goods and knowledge ^[1]

The film also documents the scope of the first full-scale LinuxWorld Summit conference, with appearances by Linus Torvalds and Larry Augustin on the keynote stage. LinuxWorld Conference and Expo is a conference and Trade show that focuses on Open source and Linux solutions in the Information technology

Much of the footage for the movie was shot in Silicon Valley. For the valley nicknamed "Silicone Valley" see San Fernando Valley.

Screenings

The film appeared in several film festivals including South by Southwest, the Atlanta Film and Video Festival, Boston Film Festival, and Denver International Film Festival; it won Best Documentary at both the Savannah Film and Video Festival and the Kudzu Film Festival. South by Southwest ( SXSW) is a set of interactive, Film, and Music festivals and conferences that take place The Boston Film Festival is an annual Film festival held in Boston in the U

The second DVD of the two-disc special edition from ThinkGeek, contains uncut versions of the interviews. DVD (also known as " Digital Versatile Disc " or " Digital Video Disc " - see Etymology)is ThinkGeek is an Electronic commerce company based in Fairfax Virginia and a subsidiary of SourceForge Inc

A write-in campaign to copyright holders of Revolution OS, Wonderview Productions, is underway to get them to donate the uncut interviews to Archive.org. The Internet Archive ( IA) is a Nonprofit organization dedicated to maintaining an on-line Library and archive of Web and

Quotes

I bumped into him (Craig Mundie of Microsoft) in an elevator. Craig Mundie is chief research and strategy officer at Microsoft. I looked at his badge and said, "ah, you work for Microsoft. "
He looked back at me and said, “Oh ya, and what do you do?”
And I thought it was some kind of tad dismissive, here is a guy in a suit looking at a scruffy hacker. . . so I gave him a thousand yard stare and said, "I am your worst nightmare!"

—Eric S. Raymond

Giving the Linus Torvalds award to the Free Software Foundation is sort of like giving the Han Solo award to the Rebel Fleet. Eric Steven Raymond (born December 4 1957 often referred to as ESR, is a Computer programmer, author and Open source software advocate Linus Benedict Torvalds ( ˈtuːrvalds born December 28 1969 in Helsinki, Finland) is a Finnish software engineer The Free Software Foundation ( FSF) is a Non-profit corporation founded by Richard Stallman on 4 October 1985 to support the Free software movement Han Solo is a character in the Star Wars universe. He was played by Harrison Ford in Star Wars Episode IV A New Hope, The Alliance to Restore the Republic (commonly known as the Rebel Alliance) is an interstellar force formed in direct military opposition to the Galactic Empire in

—Richard Stallman

Reception

Critical reviews varied widely, from approval to dismissive – including Internet reviewers, the composite is neutral to negative. Richard Matthew Stallman (born March 16 1953 often abbreviated " rms " is an American software freedom activist Every review noted the historical significance of the information, and those that noticed found the production values high, but the presentation of history mainly too dry, even resembling a lecture. Ron Wells of Film Threat found the film important, worthwhile, and well thought out for explaining the principles of the free software and open source concepts. Film Threat is a Magazine and a Webzine about Independent film, published and edited by Chris Gore. Noting its failure to represent on camera any debate with representatives of the proprietary software camp, Wells gave the film 4 of 5 stars. ^[2] TV Guide rated the film 3 of 4 stars: "surprisingly exciting", "fascinating" and "sharp looking" with a good soundtrack. TV Guide is the name of a North American weekly magazine about television programming ^[3] Daily Variety saw the film as "targeted equally at the techno-illiterate and the savvy-hacker crowd;" educating and patting one group on the head, and canonizing the other, but strong enough for an "enjoyable" recommendation. Variety is a weekly entertainment trade newspaper founded in New York in 1905 by Sime Silverman ^[4]

On the negative side, the New York Times faulted the film's one-sidedness, found its reliance on jargon "fairly dense going", and gave no recommendation. ^[5] Internet Reviews found it "a didactic and dull documentary glorifying software anarchy. Raging against Microsoft and Sun…", lacking follow-through on Red Hat and VALinux stock (in 2007, at 2% of peak value), with "lots of talking heads". ^[6] Toxicuniverse. com noted "Revolution OS blatantly serves as infomercial and propaganda. Bearded throwback to the sixties, hacker Richard Stallman serves as the movement's spiritual leader while Scandinavian Linus Torvalds acts as its mild mannered chief engineer (as developer of the operating system kernel). "^[7]

To Tim Lord, reviewing for Slashdot, the film is interesting and worthy of viewing, with some misgivings: it is "about the growth of the free software movement, and its eventual co-option by the open source movement… it was supposed to be about Linux and its battle about Microsoft, but the movie is quickly hijacked by its participants. Slashdot, often abbreviated as /, is a technology-related news Website owned by SourceForge Inc " The film "lacks the staple of documentaries: scenes with multiple people that are later analyzed individually by each of the participants" (or indeed, much back-and-forth at all). Linux itself and its benefits are notably missing, and, "[w]e are never shown anyone using Linux, except for unhappy users at an Installfest. A Linux User Group or Linux Users' Group ( LUG) is a private generally non-profit or not-for-profit organization that provides support and/or education for " The debate over Linux vs Windows is missing, showing the origin of the OS only as a response to proprietary and expensive Sun and DEC software and hardware, and its growth solely due to the Apache web server. Sun Microsystems Inc ( is a multinational vendor of Computers computer components Computer software, and Information technology services Digital Equipment Corporation was a pioneering American company in the Computer industry And Lord notes that the film shows, but does not challenge Torvalds or Stallman about their equally disingenuous remarks about the "Linux" vs "GNU/Linux" naming issue. ^[8]

References

External links

• Documentary home page
• Revolution OS at the Internet Movie Database
• Revolution OS Slashdot (20th April, 2002)
• Revolution OS at Rotten Tomatoes
• Revolution OS at Metacritic