Revolution OS (2002)

Documentary on the hackers and computer programmers who rebelled against Microsoft and proprietary software to create GNU, Linux, and the open source movement.
Genre: Documentary
Rating: NR
Release Date: 16-SEP-2003
Media Type: DVD Product Description

What a great movie

This movies truly show you what is behind Microsoft, Linux and the open source community. I really recommend everyone in the IT field to watch it. No one should miss such a great movie December 15, 2007

Great background material to OSS

The 2 DVD's in this set contains a great collection of interviews giving background to the Open Software movement.

Basic introductory level material for the person wanting to know more about the history. November 13, 2007

Not Definitive, But Worthwhile

Revolution OS is a reasonably-accurate snapshot of the Open Source movement at a particular moment in time. It presents some of the major participants and their philosophies and stories, focusing on the breakthrough to public awareness and commercial acceptance of Open Source software in general and the Linux operating system in particular. The differences between the Free Software ethos and the marketing-friendly Open Source approach is also explored in some depth. Many other aspects of the Free Software, Open Source, and Linux stories get only cursory treatment, and therefore the documentary is neither balanced nor good evangelism. While this is regrettable, the interested viewer can follow up by reading the books and essays available from many of the people profiled, including Richard Stallman, Linus Torvalds, and Eric Raymond.

There's still plenty of room for a more definitive documentary, but Mr. Moore should get credit for being the first to give the public at large a glimpse of some of the people behind the Open Source phenomenon. Even those who will, like me, learn nothing new from this film will enjoy the chance to see and hear people who have had a profound impact on their life but who they have only "met" online. August 1, 2007

A wonderful compilation

A wonderful documentary about the GNU movement and birth of Linux. Some hard to find interviews and recordings of some key events. The documentary has been very well prepared, with all necessary details in place.
I read Eric Raymond's Cathedral and the Bazaar straight after the book, which led me to rethink my business model. I would recommend it to all young entrepreneurs. July 4, 2007

Revolution OS

Great movie. Wow the part about Cygnus was wonderful. The Open Source movement misses the point on freedom but that is an idealogical debate that movies like this are bound to spark. The producer was on TLLTS in about episode 179 or so and that was sooo good. I heard about the movie from google first and downloaded parts of it but I did actually buy it before the guy was on TLLTS. The Linux Code movie is also being pirated and I learned of and got it from google video now I want to buy it but it seems the company has gone belly up already. Free media and software companies need to do well and we need them to do very well. We need this stuff. The point of GNU FREE is not free as in cost. It is not even about better quality. The point of GNU FREE is not about making the rich CEOs of Red Hat and Novel even richer. It is FREEDOM FREEDOM all the time and in every way. All of the other points are just tools to acquire and spread that FREEDOM. BUY THIS MOVIE! March 9, 2007

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