While Linux creator Linus Torvalds said he was completely out of his depth when he and his wife attended the Oscars earlier this year, could it have sparked the formal beginning to an ongoing love affair between Linux and Hollywood?
You might think that’s a stretch, but consider that Linux has been helping produce movies for years: movies like The Matrix, Titanic, Gladiator, Superman Returns, Shrek, and many more. Disney/Pixar, DreamWorks and Sony are just a few of the production studios that have been reported to run systems on Linux. Apparently Linux has fans from the Silver Screen, too: Linus hinted that Mad Men’s Jon Hamm is a Linux lover.
We’re hoping to bring the Linux and the Hollywood communities even closer together with this year’s 20th Anniversary of Linux Video Contest. If you’re our winner, you get to choose to attend the LA Film Festival (glamorous stars), SXSW (trendy marketing and advertising types), LinuxCon North America (technically hard core sysadmins and developers) or LinuxCon Europe (technically hard core sysadmins and developers in Prague).
We hope that by offering different prize options that can appeal to both Linux fans and film and advertising professionals, we can get a great sampling of talent represented in our Video Contest. Marketing Linux and telling its story is a unique challenge given the nature of the ecosystem and the way in which Linux is built. We don’t have the big advertising budgets of some of Linux’ rivals, but we do have a lot of talented, passionate, wicked smart people in our community who know what Linux means to them. And, we know there are some really creative people in the film and advertising communities who can bring new ideas to the way we share Linux with the world.
We’re looking forward to your submissions and will share them with our nearly 50,000 fans on Facebook as we receive them. Community vote helps to surface the best Linux videos, and Linus Torvalds will choose the best. To sweeten the pot, we’re also giving away one free LinuxCon pass to this year’s event for each submission we receive.
If you haven’t already seen the “Story of Linux” video produced by The Linux Foundation, you might also check it out for some inspiration. There are hundreds of stories from Linux’ inception in 1991 to its ubiquity today that are waiting to be brought to surface. Let the competition rage on!
