5 ms·

"Software Wars" fundraiser: a movie about OSS, Linux, control of information

25 points by Tsiolkovsky 14y ago

Toshio 14y ago
As someone who has read the book by the same name, I have to say I am very disgusted with how Mono is touted as the be-all-end-all silver bullet solution to the viability of Linux on the desktop. If the movie does the same thing, I don't think it should be funded.
fruzz 14y ago
A few red flags for me. The manifesto at the beginning and the $150k figure. Indie documentaries are cheap to make. My last endeavour cost $10k. I think Jason Scott spent $35k on the BBS documentary. It's really the equipment and travel cost. People like getting interviewed, they do it for free. For topics like this, spending that much on promotion has the product land on deaf ears.
- kasbah 14y ago
  It sounds a bit like they are prepared to go ahead if they receive less funding than the goal -- which is possible on IndieGoGo. I think the trailer looks great but I have asked for some clarification on these points: - What do you mean by “enable internet distribution”? Will the film be freely available to the public? What copyrights do you plan to reserve? - Could you give a better breakdown of the budget? How much is going to be spent on what? Are you really going to pay someone like Johnny Depp a ridiculous sum to do the narration? - Are there any past projects by this team or individuals in this team that you could point us to? EDIT: keithcu is responding to these points over on reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/14s7rf/software_wars_fundraiser_a_movie_about_oss_linux/c7fytkc http://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/14s7rf/software_wars_...
taylorbuley 14y ago
If you're into this topic, there's a ready-made doc on the evolution of OSS available on Netflix called "Revolution OS": http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Revolution_OS/60025132?locale=en-US http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Revolution_OS/60025132?loc... It's a bit old but at least includes the dotcom bubble punchline.

25 points by Tsiolkovsky 14y ago

As someone who has read the book by the same name, I have to say I am very disgusted with how Mono is touted as the be-all-end-all silver bullet solution to the viability of Linux on the desktop. If the movie does the same thing, I don't think it should be funded.

fruzz 14y ago

A few red flags for me. The manifesto at the beginning and the $150k figure. Indie documentaries are cheap to make. My last endeavour cost $10k. I think Jason Scott spent $35k on the BBS documentary. It's really the equipment and travel cost. People like getting interviewed, they do it for free. For topics like this, spending that much on promotion has the product land on deaf ears.

kasbah 14y ago
It sounds a bit like they are prepared to go ahead if they receive less funding than the goal -- which is possible on IndieGoGo. I think the trailer looks great but I have asked for some clarification on these points: - What do you mean by “enable internet distribution”? Will the film be freely available to the public? What copyrights do you plan to reserve? - Could you give a better breakdown of the budget? How much is going to be spent on what? Are you really going to pay someone like Johnny Depp a ridiculous sum to do the narration? - Are there any past projects by this team or individuals in this team that you could point us to? EDIT: keithcu is responding to these points over on reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/14s7rf/software_wars_fundraiser_a_movie_about_oss_linux/c7fytkc http://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/14s7rf/software_wars_...

taylorbuley 14y ago

If you're into this topic, there's a ready-made doc on the evolution of OSS available on Netflix called "Revolution OS": http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Revolution_OS/60025132?locale=en-US http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Revolution_OS/60025132?loc... It's a bit old but at least includes the dotcom bubble punchline.