Revolution OS

Revolution OS is a documentary made in 2001 that details Linux and the open source movement. It interviews many key players that are involved in contributing the success of Linux and open source as well as provide statical blurbs detailing its growing popularity.

I found this documentary very interesting and enjoyable. As a person that's rather new to Linux and open source, there was a lot of great points that helped clarify what exactly is open source and free(dom) software. I really enjoyed listening to the interviews with all those renown people that started Linux and the free software/open source movement. The interviews gave me great insight into their ideology and reasonings for what they did and how much ambition and courage that they had to follow their dreams.

The documentary mixed in a lot of humor and quirkiness that had me chuckling throughout the movie. An example of this was when Richard Stallman was giving a speech after receiving the "IDG/Linus Torvalds Community Award." The documentary depicts Richard Stallman as a very passionate person when it comes to free software. So to alleviate the seriousness of his mission statement, the cameras seem to have been fixated on Linus Torvalds' two daughters running around on the stage. I feel that this reflects how the GNU/Linux community is friendly, understanding and accepting as I doubt anyone else anywhere could get away with having their kids running around during a key acceptance speech.

Though this documentary was made in 2001, historical by computer standards as a "Linux" year is six months, with Linux and open source picking up more steam and becoming more popular with each passing year the philosophies in the film are still very relevant and really helps provide all the newbies, myself included, a better understanding and possibly the necessary nudge to break out of the shackles of proprietary software and embrace these Linux and open source communities.