The first animated film created entirely on Linux workstations has hit cinema screens.

The animation in Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas was developed on 250 Hewlett Packard (HP) workstation servers running RedHat Linux, the film's producers revealed yesterday.

Ed Leonard, head of animation technology at DreamWorks, said in a statement: "HP provides us with the tools to push the boundaries of our craft.

"With HP technology we are creating movies that would have been impossible to make as little as a year ago."

The producers explained that the relatively low price and high-performance of Linux-based workstations and servers enabled its animators to create more film in less time, saving money in the process.

DreamWorks also developed a digital animation review tool, which delivered uncompressed and full resolution colour accurate playback to animators' desktops. This tool replaced a SGI Irix-based system.

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