Disney plus Linux equals EXCELLENT!

[Grumpy D. Ham]

Penguin Moves to Disney



As an advocate of low-cost computing and a fan of the Linux operating system, I thought this would be interesting news to post here. While geared more towards the computer geeks, this is great public releations for The Mouse.

 

[JoNo]

But isn't that how Dis does it? Take something for free & spin it around & make some $$$ off of it. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE linux, Right now I dual boot between XP pro & Mandrake Linux, I just see this becoming Disney trying to cash out on a free thing...

 

[Cricket2]

I wonder how this will sit with any possible MS sponsorships in the future.

Bill can't be happy.

 

[Towncrier]

All the point of sales terminals at WDW are still running Micro$oft software. I know that they were doing some sort of upgrade at WDW when we were there in June. I know because the terminals were all driving the CMs crazy. It was hit or miss as to whether or not my KTTW card would work during the week of the upgrade. Perhaps Linux would have been a better choice in the parks as well.

 

[TiggerFreak]

Thanks for the article Ham!

 

[Walt's Frozen Head]

The crux of this move is the ability to use Windows-OS Adobe products on hundreds of *nix machines without paying to license Windows for those machines.

This is a corporate-level game of number shuffling, and, honestly, I think it's difficult to "choose sides" based on anything other than a personal love/hate of Microsoft.

What's interesting to me is that I see Disney's position in this business endeavor to be precisely the opposite of their position in the DeCSS on linux issue they fought so hard about. Whether Disney thinks the use of intellectual property should be based per-product or per-use seems to depend purely on which of those options puts more in Disney coffers.

This should not be seen as any philosophical endorsement of open source computing on Disney's part. The only philosophy endorsed here, not surprisingly, is a particualrly two-faced version of "show me the money."

 

[KaterBell]

This is a great move. We had actually made big jokes about this one day when we walked through Epcot, to the "Attraction Info" board in between Innoventions in front of the fountain - and instead of displaying the wait and attraction/show times, it just had a picture of the Shortcut icon for the Powerpoint Presentation for the shows. I said, "if Disney ran Mac OS X or Linux, that wouldn't have happened"....

 

[Tekneek]

It does not matter WHY a company embraces Linux. Cost is still a great reason and a prime motivator for Linux adoption.

 

[Walt's Frozen Head]

Tekneek, you have a point but it really doesn't have anything to do with this news item.

Parts of Disney "embraced" Linux some time ago. This announcement is not about any new Linux installations or conversions... no XP installations were harmed in the production of this news item.

This is about getting the Windows version of PhotoShop to run on Disney's existing Linux machines, while avoiding paying Microsoft any Windows licensing fees. This is saying "we bought the program itself, we should be able to run it on whatever hardware and OS we choose." Like I said, sure, this could be seen in a vacuum as an admirable stance, but consider that Disney fought hard to prosecute over DeCSS, precisely because that program allowed Linux users to play legally purchased DVDs on the hardware and OS they chose.

Disney thinks the rules under which it buys intellectual property should be different from the rules under which it sells intellectual property.

Disney is not "embracing" Linux, Disney is playing both sides of the table on Linux' peculiar financials.