S omething Seriously Missing In Avatar Movie Reviews

by Andrea Cordingly, for the Reallylinux.com OP/Ed Section

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A s Avatar continues its climb among the top rated and top grossing movies, I enjoy reading reviews in articles and news stories about the complex CGI and how impressive the graphics.

But then I realize the significant absence of credit for the underlying operating system that made these extreme and complex computer generated graphics possible.



Where are the accolades for Linux?



A review of the company that made the Linux computer graphics happen, known as WETA Digital (Wellington, New Zealand, a Peter Jackson spin off company), is notoriously absent from the articles.

The underlying operating system, Linux RHEL (hundreds of HP blade servers running as Linux cluster) is also utterly absent from even the more technical news sources.

I am glad to at least see some news sources referring to the HP Blade servers. But perhaps this is simply because some news media offer detail in their stories that is explicitly related to the advertisers and the ad dollars that support them.

However, it is a pleasant feeling to know that some of the world's most complex CGI are created using 64-bit Linux-based software for painting textures and 3D modeling.

It is also a joy to realize that Weta Digital uses one of the world's largest Linux clusters for film rendering and now includes in its successes the films: Lord of the Rings, Fantastic Four, King Kong, and Avatar.

But it is a bit odd to realize that the power and versatility of Linux is taken for granted even when it serves as so integral a part of major successes like Avatar.

Therefore, I write this article as an encouragement to all those in the Linux community. I feel a need to present these facts since it is obvious that the existence of GNU/Linux and thereby a part of the successes of major motion pictures like Avatar belong to all of us!