This is one of many short video segments which will be added to the Digital Tipping Point (DTP) archive. Thanks to Thomas King, a writer for Linux.com and LXer, for doing the rough editing for this series of interview segments!

In this series of 21 interview segments, Dolby computer wiz John Gilbert talks about where Linux has penetrated the movie industry. And if anyone should know, it is this guy. John makes his living by using Unix and Linux to help make the magic of Dolby movie sounds and deliver those sounds to audiences. John makes a convincing case that Linux has found a home in the movie industry, and plans to continue living there for the foreseeable future. And this interview, shot in 2004, has certainly been born out in many respects by the passage of time as seen now in 2008.

In segment 09 (Tape 153~009), John says that you can take the Java kit and develop your own code for free. Java was an answer to Microsoft's dominance. The idea was that you could develop a virtual system that would run on any hardware, Microsoft or not. Apple, Sun, anything would run with Java. Sun's Java Desktop Linux has heavy emphasis on Java. Sun's Desktop Java system is still a little primitive, but it is getting better. He thinks that it is very popular in China.

In segment 10 (Tape 154~001), John helps newbies understand some computer lingo. He tells us what an operating system does. It manages all the other programs. It keeps track of hardware and memory. It also keeps tracker of users and permissions. Unix is two things. It is a collection of tools that are fairly standardized. It also refers to the code base of the kernel. Does it trace its lineage back to the Thompson and Ritchie legacy? Linux is a Unix-like system. It has not direct lineage back to Thompson and Ritchie's work. Therefore, it has no legal issues. And it also has much more mature features because it is later than the original Unix. An embedded operating system is similar to the chips that run in things like a microwave over. It means that you can have lots more features if you have an embedded operating system. Now, those types of appliances can run a more beefy operating system like Linux.

In segment 11 (Tape 154~002), John talks about big embedded Linux systems, like the Slackware-Linux powered Dolby computer that serves up movies. And there is a dedicated machine in a San Francisco movie theater called the Metreon that serves up movies with Red Hat Linux. TiVo is a PC running Linux. The X-Box is an embedded device, that normally has restricted hardware, but people have installed Linux on it. At MIT, there is a Coke machine that has installed Linux on it so that you can find out from anywhere in the world how many bottles of Coke are in it and what its temperature is. He says that "real time" refers to a guaranteed response time to events, such as watching a video, and guaranteeing that the image on the screen will change within one-thirtieth of a second. [This is obviously a segment where John is geeking out. We wanted to let our interviewees geek out, since we knew that this footage would go up on the Internet Archive, where it might be useful to a historical researcher looking at it say 10 years from now.]

This footage is our raw rough-cut footage. It lacks transitions, music, special effectsor Finnish rendering. It is our "source code". Please feel free to rip, mix and burn this footage consistent with our Creative Commons license as disclosed on this page.

All of John Gilbert's interview segments can be found here:

http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv153_sf_01_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_001.ogg (segment 01)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv153_sf_01_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_002.ogg (segment 02)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv153_sf_01_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_003.ogg (segment 03)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv153_sf_01_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_004.ogg (segment 04)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv153_sf_01_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_005.ogg (segment 05)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv153_sf_01_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_006.ogg (segment 06)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv153_sf_01_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_007.ogg (segment 07)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv153_sf_01_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_008.ogg (segment 08)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv153_sf_01_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_009.ogg (segment 09)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv154_sf_02_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_001.ogg (segment 10)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv154_sf_02_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_002.ogg (segment 11)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv154_sf_02_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_003.ogg (segment 12)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv154_sf_02_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_004.ogg (segment 13)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv154_sf_02_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_005.ogg (segment 14)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv154_sf_02_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_006.ogg (segment 15)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv154_sf_02_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_007.ogg (segment 16)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv154_sf_02_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_008.ogg (segment 17)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv154_sf_02_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_009.ogg (segment 18)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv155_sf_03_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_001.ogg (segment 19)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv155_sf_03_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_002.ogg (segment 20)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv155_sf_03_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_003.ogg (segment 21)

If you like this segment, please consider typing up a summary for it and emailing that summary to Christian Einfeldt at einfeldt@gmail.com. Your work will be credited and posted on this page.

The DTP will be many, many films created by the global open source video community about how open source is changing their lives. We, the DTP crew, are submitting this footage for anyone to rip, mix, and burn under the Creative Commons Attribute - ShareAlike license. We welcome edits, transcriptions, graphics, music, and animation contributions to the film. Please send a link for any contributions to Christian Einfeldt at einfeldt@gmail.com.

Or, if you would like to contribute by directly transcribing this particular video segment, you can do so by going here:

http://digitaltippingpoint.com/wiki/index.php/Tape_154

and typing the audio as you hear it into the wiki. Please be sure to add the transcription for this segment under: Segment 002, John Gilbert
You can find other ways to contribute by going to our wiki front page here:

http://digitaltippingpoint.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

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