“Most of Hollywood’s big special-effects and animation companies
now use Linux. DreamWorks, maker of Shrek and Sinbad, boasts on its
Web site of its ‘groundbreaking adoption of Linux.’ Digital Domain,
which worked on Titanic and Apollo 13, runs Linux on about 1,000
processors. Lucas Digital runs Linux on nearly 1,500 boxes to
create effects for the Star Wars epics and Harry Potter movies.“But this love affair with freeware may prove costly. SCO Group,
a $64 million (sales) software shop in Lindon, Utah that owns
copyrights to the Unix system that inspired Linux, aims to collect
fees from companies that use the free code. It may target Hollywood
next. ‘They’re using a ton of Linux in Hollywood, so they’ve become
a lightning rod for us,’ says Darl McBride, SCO’s chief
executive…”