His Name is Linux
This clever television commercial from IBM is the first I’ve ever seen about the Linux Operating System. It catches a nerve not because Big Blue is sponsoring it, or Penny Marshall makes a cameo (oh, please, no), but because it tries to make palpable a foreign concept to most people working outside of today’s nitty-gritty IT departments by presenting it as something real—a nine year old boy. True, a viewer may not know exactly what Linux or Open Source is by the end of this Matrix-like ad spot, but the anthropomorphic simplicity breaks a good foundation for a future understanding. I don’t know who they hired to do this commercial, but they deserve big kudos. I just hope the first words out of this prodigious, bald young man’s mouth don’t begin with “Dude!”
