What does a software guy do on his day off? Watch a movie about the rise of Linux popularity, of course.

It's a documentary of the rise of an alternative operating system, specifically to Windows. A number of the key figures in the free and open source movements are interviewed and give their thoughts on the history of the rise.

Richard Stallman, of the GNU and FSF organizations, Linus Torvalds, original author (intended to not slight other contributors, nor diminish Linus' contributions) of the Linux kernel, Bruce Perens, who's credited with establishing the Open Source Definition, and some of the founders of the original support-based companies provide their insights.

It does kind of skip fast over the history of Linux (from Unix, through BSD and Sun/Solaris) , but does, in Linus' own words, properly credit Sun as the inspiration, instead of the oft mis-attributed Minix (not that there's anything wrong with Minix). He says straight up "Sun is what they used at the university; it's what I based my development on..." How much more clear can it be?

It does, again kind of quickly or perhaps in scattered discussions, talk about the GNU/Linux combination of the OS/OE. I, for one, am guilty of using GNU and Linux, and GNU/Linux almost interchangeably. Of course, Linux is the kernel around which the GNU software (as Richard and Linus both point out, especially the compilers) is added to form the foundation of the various distributions. The distributions and the business around them make up a good part of the documentary, which should help those who misunderstand that, too.

If you're at all interested in some of the motivations, definitions, or just plain geeky history of Linux, this is a pretty good watch.