Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments
Search

News for nerds, stuff that matters

Slashdot Log In

Log In

Create Account  |  Retrieve Password

KDE on the NBC Show "Heroes"

Posted by CmdrTaco on Thu Sep 28, 2006 09:11 AM
from the well-isn't-that-nice-for-them dept.
GUI KDE Media Television
Vesuv writes "The pilot episode of NBC's flagship drama for the 2006 fall season proudly features a laptop showing a KDE desktop and KDE applications such as Kopete and KMix running on Mandriva Linux. " The show itself looks to have potential for essentially an x-men knockoff. I mean, it ain't written by Sorkin (all hail jesus) so I'll give it a few more episodes to decide if all the angst is gonna kill me or not.
+ -
story
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

KDE on the NBC Show "Heroes" 50 Comments More /

 Full
 Abbreviated
 Hidden
More
Loading... please wait.

  • The show is totally unrealistic (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 28 2006, @09:13AM (#16228763)
    Don't get me wrong... teleportation, flight, invulnerability, etc... all okay. But a hot girl using linux on the desktop? Yeah, right!
  • Do we really need another X-Men ripoff? Wasn't Mutant X already enough?

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by falcon5768 (629591)
      Well to its credit, Mutant X was produced by Mavel and was sorta a X-Men without having to use the X-Men since those where a Movie franchise.

      This looks more to be along the lines of DC superhero's.

    • Some of the exposition dialog was *painful. Now that's over with, though, so I have hopes for later episoden
    • Hey, at least they're *open* about the fact that it's an X-Men rippoff... they even mentioned X-Men in the pilot. It was quite funny, and IIRC, it went something like this:

      Hiro: Most people think time is like this, [draws a line] but it's really more like this. [draws a circle]

      Hiro's Friend: Where did you learn that?

      Hiro: X-Men 128!

      IMO, the show was OK but not astounding. Hiro and his friend were quite funny, and made the show watchable. The special effects -- especially the fraternal flight fest at the end

    • What is a "rip-off"? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by ajs (35943) <ajs AT ajs DOT com> on Thursday September 28 2006, @09:43AM (#16229349) Homepage Journal
      I've always wondered about all the terminology that we have for derivative creative work. I doubt that anyone could come up with a coherent definition of "rip-off" that didn't rely on subjective evaluation of quality and/or a subjective evaluation of sameness.

      Ask yourself this, is it possible to have a story about a group of super-powered students that won't be considered an "x-men rip-off"? Is that really fair to the authors who actually do come up with interesting and creative ideas of their own?

      I'm not saying Heroes is a unique and beautiful flower. I haven't seen it, and maybe all it does have going for it is its x-menness, but I refuse to evaluate fiction on the sole basis that it is "like" something else. IMHO, it stands on its own merits, or it falls on its own flaws. Anything else just seems like being dishonest and unfair to the creative folks that put the fiction together.
      • This may not be the original attribution, but it looks like Pablo Picasso [wikiquote.org] coined the phrase, "Good artists copy. Great artists steal."

        I enjoyed the pilot, and it's got a Season Pass on my Tivo...
    • I believe that quote is from Picasso.

  • seems logical, (Score:5, Interesting)

    by joe 155 (937621) on Thursday September 28 2006, @09:14AM (#16228795) Journal
    It does make sense that in TV and films people would use free and open software on computers, they need it to look like people think a computer should look (and KDE does that) and they need to have the right to use it without worrying about being sued because it's proprietry and they like to not have to give thousands of dollars and coppies of the script over to people so the whole show doesn't get pulled for creating a negative image of software.

    The only thing that amazes me is that more people aren't doing this
    • There's a decent amount of cc-licensed material out there. Televisions that are on in the background, music on a bus, etc. I've heard that clearing rights for this stuff takes up an obscene amount of time and money. Sometimes you gotta bite the bullet because you gotta have a particular clip with some resonance but just as often you only need something that looks professional

    • they need to have the right to use it without worrying about being sued because it's proprietry and they like to not have to give thousands of dollars and coppies of the script over to people so the whole show doesn't get pulled for creating a negative image of software. The only thing that amazes me is that more people aren't doing this

      I think you've got this a bit backwards. Apple often gives free laptops to television shows and movies to be used on screen as advertising. More likely the thought was ei

  • Ow, my virgin eyes! (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 28 2006, @09:15AM (#16228809)
    BITCH!
    You can't show that on the internet!

  • Important point to note: (Score:5, Funny)

    by zaren (204877) <holdthis@mail.com> on Thursday September 28 2006, @09:17AM (#16228841) Homepage Journal
    The scene in question with the KDE stuff involves a hot chick getting naked online.

    And you notice the windowing system and applications on her laptop.

    Slashdot, you never cease to amaze me :)
    • As a possible explanation (wish they gave no-prizes for this stuff), the hot chick's son was working on a busted logic board in the next scene. While Ali Larter may not be a computer genius, it's possible that her "son" is, thereby explaining why he would have Linux running on his mom's work computer.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by chrismcdirty (677039)
      The hot chick definitely had my attention while she was on the screen. But soon after, all camera focus was on the desktop.

    • Re:Important point to note: (Score:5, Insightful)

      by evil agent (918566) on Thursday September 28 2006, @09:32AM (#16229107)
      Ah, but that's the difference between a nerd and a regular pervert. The pervert's focus will be on "the porn" while the nerd's focus will be on "how is this person getting it so I can get more of it!" Teach a man to fish...

  • Another sighting! (Score:3, Funny)

    by Fx.Dr (915071) on Thursday September 28 2006, @09:18AM (#16228853)
    And if you squint really hard you can see Elvis in the background.

  • Superpowers != Xmen.

    I watched the pilot. It was interesting enough that I'll probably watch a few more episodes to see what the hell is going on.

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by elrous0 (869638) *
        the premise is that the superpowers are the result of Human evolution, which is the basic premise of the X-Men

        It's also the premise of the 70's TV series "The Tommorrow People" as well as hundreds of other science fiction stories, novels, movies, and TV shows (many of which LONG [wikipedia.org] pre-date the X-men's use of the idea).

        -Eric

  • It used to be that Apple was the darling of the TV/Movie business. Of course that was usually on the hardware side. Ordinarily the "screen shots" were graphic-artist nonsense that photographed well (and of course, there is always a beep or click when each character appears on the screen). Maybe now we'll see Apple hardware, and then the screen shots will be Linux. That would be a bit incongruous, but very likely something Hollywood would do.

  • It has been done (Score:3)

    by jellomizer (103300) * on Thursday September 28 2006, @09:21AM (#16228919)
    Not really big news.
    TV has been doing that for a while. It might not have been KDE. But I can't count the times I have seen alternate OS's.

    Mac OS has been shown all the time, even advertising software or websites that do not even work on a Mac (Or is not needed for a Mac like virus scanners). (Movies follow the general trend. Heros use Macs, while Villains or Dark Heros use Windows)

    Unix and Linux (because they often look the same on TV) with various windows managers. CDE is often popular. This is often used in the Big Data Centers, or when people are doing some real hacking.

    Now they probably used KDE because they didn't need to pay royalty to any company to show it. Plus it looked high-tech enough for the show. But in the grand scheme of things most people don't care what the hero's computer is running. It wont bring packs of people to install linux because they saw linux on their favorite TV Show. Just like in Jurassic Park you didn't see a migration back to Unix because the park ran it, or a huge migration away because the park failed because of it.

  • KDE (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Daemonstar (84116) on Thursday September 28 2006, @09:22AM (#16228925)
    Because if they had used Windows:
    1. They probably would have to pay Microsoft for product placement
    2. Fill out tons of forms just to use the product on-air
    3. Using something that wasn't Windows (and therefore unfamilliar with most people) looks "techier", or
    4. KDE/Linux is free; why spend any more money than you have to? :)

    • Re:KDE - Another reason .. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by in2mind (988476) on Thursday September 28 2006, @09:31AM (#16229103) Homepage
      Because if they had used Windows: 1. They probably would have to pay Microsoft for product placement 2. Fill out tons of forms just to use the product on-air 3. Using something that wasn't Windows (and therefore unfamilliar with most people) looks "techier", or 4. KDE/Linux is free; why spend any more money than you have to? :)

      Point no.3 is very valid. By making it look "techy", it gets featured on Slashdot! Seriously,it has helped spread the show.

        • They would have to purchase licenses to run Windows on the laptop, so, yes, they would be paying Microsoft to promote their product.

          If MS would not give them a laptop with Windows installed, I'd be very surprised. I know Apple gives them to movie and TV productions. In any case, wherever they acquired the laptop, there is about a 99% chance it came with Windows already installed.

  • OK, so the show is trying a little too hard to be "Lost" (Look - we've got all these connections between people - there are no coincidences on the Island - I mean, the Earth!)

    But what gets me is how the writers could actually have a conversation like this one:

    Politician: Hey, little brother.
    Good hearted guy: Hey, I think I can fly!
    Politician: Great - that's *exactly* something someone would say in a crowded room full of people.
    Good hearted guy: No, really - I'm going to be like superman!

    I nearly turned

  • Noticed. Was another example too. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by mbadolato (105588) on Thursday September 28 2006, @09:35AM (#16229179) Journal
    I watched Heroes the night it was on and loved it (I missed the Linux part; as someone mentioned earlier in this thread, there were better things to be looking at in the scene).

    I didn't delete it from TiVo because my wife missed it. Last night she was watching it, and I sat down right as the camera was pointing at the desktop, and my eyes noticed the blue in the window's title bar and I laughed and said "they're using Linux".

    Later on when they showed the Japanese guy's friend screwing around on his computer at work, I noticed his desktop was also not Windows or Mac, but didn't recognize the theme (and no, I wasn't going to pause and try to figure it out :)) The site above did not mention/post about his desktop, but I'm sure someone can get a capture of it.

  • Making a logic board (Score:4, Insightful)

    by a_nonamiss (743253) on Thursday September 28 2006, @10:26AM (#16230145)
    Wait, isn't this the same show where some 10 year old kid was soldering his computer because it was broken? Now, I know they were trying to illustrate that he was a smart kid and all, but you can't fix a computer that was made any time after 1982 with a soldering iron. I really think they should hire consultants to read through the script before they put in stupid things like that.

    I know some geek is going to respond saying he soldered his computer and made it work, but realistically, it's not something that you can do. Some script writer thought it would sound good...

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by brufar (926802)
      I fixed a Server motherboard no more than 6 months ago using **gasp** a soldering iron !!

      Yes it sufferd from the deadly failed Electrolytic Capacitor plague. A replacment motherboard was no-where to be found in a timely manner so I replaced the Capacitors and got the server running again. Mind you it wasn't intended as a permanent fix, but the repair DID include the use of a soldering iron which you claim is impossible.. And it ran long enough to get replacement hardware in. as a matter of fact I think

  • Camera scene (Score:5, Funny)

    by MobyDisk (75490) on Thursday September 28 2006, @10:50AM (#16230619) Homepage
    The real news here is that someone got a USB camera working with KDE.

  • Tech reference on "Kidnapped" as well (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Phishcast (673016) on Thursday September 28 2006, @01:39PM (#16234013)
    I was watching "Kidnapped" last night (I don't recall which network it's on) and they were looking at someone's computer and "31337" was on the screen. The lead character went on to say that this meant "elite" in the hacker community. This didn't impress me much, but he went on to say, "Also, 31337 is the UDP port that the hacker group Cult of the Dead Cow uses to access Windows 95 PCs using Back Orafice."

    A little dated, but I thought that was a pretty impressive reference for a television show to make.

    • This is even remotely interesting because?

      Yea. Not as interesting as NMAP featured in Matrix.

      The only thing mildly interesting is that ,its a girl using that laptop :) - and the screenshots dont have the gal!

    • Wouldn't it be GINUSA: GINUSA Is Not the USA?
    • I predict that by 2020, Richard Stallman will be successful in changing our country's name to the United States of GNUmerica. You heard it here first!
      That's not a recursive acronym, and to be GNU it must have a recursive acronym!

      How about: USG States of GNUmerica?
    • Dude the show is available online @ NBC's site.
      You can even download it if you have the intel processor they require.

      Check this NBC page http://www.nbc.com/Heroes/ [nbc.com]

        • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

          by shark72 (702619)

          "I would have gladly paid to watch - but it's not on iTunes. Oh well, off to the TorrentMobile, batman! Another idiotic network failing to grasp they could make money by letting me watch the show when I want."

          It is the #4 download on iTunes as of Thursday morning. It is also front and center on the "TV Shows" page, presently directly above the free episode of Battlestar Galactica. Shows generally appear on iTunes the day after they air.

All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners. Comments are owned by the Poster. The Rest © 1997-2009 Geeknet, Inc.