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UNIX01/Current Uses Of Linux

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Linux has emerged in the forefront of UNIXes largely because of it's versatility. It can be used on the desktop or server environments as we shall examine in these course, but it's functionality extends far beyond.

Linux is an incredibly scalable UNIX. It can be run anywhere from an embedded device to a massive cluster of machines to a mainframe. Before we conclude our discussion of UNIX history today, it would be benefitial to examine some of the current uses of Linux you might not know of.

Embedded

One of the more exiting areas for Linux adoption is in the form of embedded devices. Here is a small sampling of embedded Linux devices and links:

Hollywood Special Effects

Linux was first used wide-scale in Hollywood for the movie Titanic, but since has been implimented in almost every production house.

  • Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, an animated movie from DreamWorks? Animation Technology that hits theaters July 2, is the first Hollywood production created entirely on Linux. More than 250 Hewlett-Packard workstations running Red Hat Linux make up the core of DreamWorks?' graphics platform.
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,59452,00.html

  • Movie houses from DreamWorksLLC?, The Walt Disney Co., Pixar Animation Studios and Blue Sky Studios, Inc., are all using Linux-based servers and/or workstations for their digital animation movies to achieve reduced cost and increased performance.
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,1186462,00.asp

  • Animators at the Los Angeles post-production studio Rhythm & Hues used Maya, Houdini, Film GIMP and proprietary Linux-based tools. "We utilized about a hundred Linux desktops to create Scooby-Doo", says Technology VP Mark Brown. "My biggest problem was all the animators yelling at me for more Linux boxes."
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=6148

  • This industry is like a team sport--it's a collaborative effort. The ability to share data and other material, aside from office-style documents, is extremely complicated and made more so by the limitations of the Microsoft environment. So it was for technical reasons that the industry is looking back to the [Linux] market.
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=5472

Heavy-duty Computational Power

Linux is in use at many heavy-duty computational facilities across the country in what is known as "clusters" (which are large arrays of inexpensive machines networked together and acting as a whole). The first Linux clustering project was the Beowulf Project (http://www.beowulf.org/).

With projects like Cluster Knoppix (http://bofh.be/clusterknoppix/), creating a cluster from an existing set of computers is as easy as booting a CD.

http://arrakis.ncsa.uiuc.edu/ps2/index.php Shows a project to create a Linux cluster from inexpensive video game consoles (namely, the Sony PS2).


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