Today's focus: Linux: Lord of the network 
             
By Phil Hochmuth  
             
When you're at the movies this week for the premiere of "Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Rings," keep in mind that your favorite open source server operating system played a big part in bringing J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-Earth to life on the big screen. 
             
That's because Weta Digital, the New Zealand-based special effects company that worked on the film, used a cluster of 200 Linux servers to carry out the most compute-intensive tasks, such as combining computer animation, special effects and live-action footage into a single digital video image. 
             
The Linux machines at Weta are dual 1GHz Pentium III boxes running Red Hat 7.0. Special software developed by Pixar - the special effects studio which made "Toy Story" and "Monsters, Inc." - divided large video image files up frame by frame for the cluster of Linux machines to render. 
             
Weta chose Linux over rival machines from Silicon Graphics (SGI), a longtime leader in high-end graphics and animation software, because of the 10:1 price ratio the Linux systems offered, and the comparable performance, said Weta CTO Jon Labrie.  
             
Weta also use Linux PCs for artist workstations - machines on which the actual animation and special effects were added into the film. Linux again replaced SGI workstations, as well as desktops from Apple, another longtime-supplier to the graphics and post-production industries. 
             
             
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            To contact Phil Hochmuth:  
             
            Phil Hochmuth is a staff writer for Network World, and  
            a former systems integrator. You can reach him at  
            mailto:phochmut@nww.com. 
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