[Fsf-friends] The Code... a movie about Free Software/ Open Source and related
issues
FN
fred@bytesforall.org
Sat, 15 Feb 2003 10:49:18 +0530 (IST)
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Synopsis of " The Code" http://www.linuxthemovie.com/
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In 1991, a 20-year old Linus Torvalds, a thin, bespectacled, Swedish-
speaking Finnish computer science student sends a posting to an
Internet newsgroup asking for advice on how to make a better operating
system. His project is a hobby, he says, and would never become `big
and professional'. But in ten years he and his loose alliance of
hackers all over the world creates an operating system - Linux - that
challenges Windows 2000 for the server market and is now poised to
dominate the next generation of handheld and desktop computers. What
makes Linux different, and deeply troubling for traditional software
companies, is that no one owns it. Every user is free to adapt it in
any way they wish, as long as they pass it on to others on the same
terms.
The Code presents the first decade of Linux from 1991 to 2001. Besides
Torvalds, it includes many of his closest allies in development
process, that is nowadays seen as the greatest success story of the
Internet culture. Eventually, Linux becomes a viable business solution
within the computer industry. Media loves the story of `a single
hacker against the forces of darkness'. `Linux' becomes a catch
phrase. Torvalds turns into an international media star. No more a shy
nerd, but a relaxed, witty media performer par excellence. Linus is a
Jesus for a politician, respected and adored by both Linux
enthusiasts, the counter-culture - and the big businessmen. A rare
combination, this time or any other. But even after all this attention
Linus Torvalds remains, as a person, an enigma. When interviewed in
the media, he is always asked the same questions and usually giving
the same answers too. We think we know him, but do we really? Why did
he put his code into the Net for free, initially? Many can still not
understand it. Maybe because `given enough eyeballs, all bugs are
shallow', giving a way to a better product? Or is there something more
to it?
The hero of the film is the archetype of our times: the programmer. In
The Code programming is seen partially as an art form. Like artists,
programmers will do it even if they do not get any money. Through
Torvalds and his cohort, following the code development process, we
get into the mind-set of a programmer - and the communication between
programmers. Operating from his study in San Jose, California, Linus
is the benevolent dictator among hundreds of Linux developers around
the world. This room is the centre of their universe. Everything goes
through Linus, or his right hand man Alan Cox, a Welshman. Developers
compete in order to get their solutions and improvements accepted by
Linus. He openly admits that he developed only 2 % or 3 % of the code
in the beginning, and that he built upon the work by earlier
programmers, like Richard Stallman. Developers are like monks in their
virtual monastery. Their change of e-mails through the years opens the
Linux saga in the film like a letter novel. Leadership in Linux
universe is about getting people to trust enough that they take
advice, making them to do things because of their own reasons, not due
to any external pressure. Linus is strict, loyal, dictatorial, humble
and positive, all at the same time. And this is the key to the
fulfilment of the collective dream. Resembling cybernetics and
communism, it would have never been built without teamwork, collective
responsibility - and centralized planning.
Along the way, Microsoft recognizes competition, and throws some
mccarthyian dirt towards Linux, calling it un-American. Regardless of
this, Wall Street applauds, and for a brief time Linux is the cream of
the crop at the stock exchange market. What is more important and
revolutionary, the Linux phenomenon makes a lot of ground in Asia and
Africa, where an open source code and a free operating system are
something concrete, not just fancy, elitist idealism. The process
started in Europe and the United States, but it is bound to be
completed somewhere else.
The Code is about the human urge to share and exchange, to achieve
something through collaboration, the profit motive not being the
dominating factor. Linux and the free software movement have showed
new ways to make profit in computer industry, while raising heated
debates on the ethics of business and the old issue of freedom of
speech. In the end, The Code tells a key story of the digital age, a
symbolic saga about capitalism during the last fin de si=E8cle of the
second millennium and the early steps of the third one.
Hannu Puttonen
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