It seems that since the days of the movie 'Titanic', Linux has become entrenched as a major rendering farm OS and is starting to move into the workstation environment! Get it? Workstations ARE on the desktop! Remember that it was the workstations were the Winvocates claimed the real work was done! Seems Linux is continuing on it's course to become of becoming the dominate OS in computer generated special affects in the movies!
http://www2.linuxjournal.com/lj-issues/issue88/
4803.html
A great quote:
'Some wonder how Linux will dislodge Windows on the desktop because leading desktop applications such as Microsoft Office (Word, Excel and Access) aren't there. But, if you are a motion picture animator most of your everyday tools are already available on Linux, and the number being ported or even produced specifically for Linux is increasing at a remarkable rate.'
Seems that when the tools are ready, people are more than willing to switch! Hell, there more than ready, they'll even developed their own tools!
'For character animation, a scan of a paper sketch is done using ToonShooter. Production software lead Derek Chan explains, ''ToonShooter is an internal tool we wrote for Linux. It captures low resolution 640 × 480 line art that the artists use to time the film.'' Created more than a year ago, this Linux capture stand software is deployed in three animation departments. Chan says, ''Demand was keen for this Linux software, and we delivered it ahead of schedule. DreamWorks has 60 units in production now.''
Hmmm, It all sounds like the work that winvocates claimed as the domain for NT. Departmental changes in OS's. Could this be how Linux takes over the desk top? One department at a time?