Computerworld.NZ: If You Take an OSS to Water, Does It Get Weta?

[ Thanks to Jason Greenwood for this link. ]

"Weta Digital got great value out of a switch to Linux but found support and memory problems a 'can of worms.'

"Weta, famed for its work on the Lord of the Rings film trilogy, says it achieved about twice the performance for half the cost in rendering its mix of CGI and filmed images when it changed to Linux on Intel processors.

"The traditional platform the Wellington film graphics house had been using for four or five years was built of Silicon Graphics Mips-based processors running SGI's Unix variant, Irix. Three years ago, looking at getting the biggest bang for its buck, Weta became aware that some of its software suppliers, such as Nothing Real, Pixar and Alias Wavefront, were supporting Linux.

"It settled on Intel-based SGI processors--700MHz Pentium 3s--running the open source operating system..."

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• Computerworld.NZ: Linux Move Not Shift from SGI: Weta(Jun 10, 2002)
• Reuters: IBM Sells Workstations for 'Rings' Films(May 30, 2002)
• apcmag.com: Tech wizardry (More on the Lord of the Rings visual effects team)(Jan 26, 2002)