The script is great and offers a new level of entertainment

Jun 25, 2015 06:05 GMT  ·  By

I don't know how many of you out there are aware of a new TV series called Mr. Robot starting Rami Malek as a computer hacker that goes by the name of Elliot and uses Linux kernel-based operating systems to hack various entities.

Created by Sam Esmail, the Mr. Robot TV show began airing on June 24, 2015, on the USA Network channel. It aims to be an American psychological thriller–drama series developed for television.

"Follows a mysterious anarchist who recruits a young computer programmer (Malek) who suffers from an anti-social disorder and connects to people by hacking them," reads the TV show's IMDB page.

It appears that the show has an excellent rating (9.4) from over 14,000 users at the moment of writing this article, despite the fact that only a single episode was aired just a few hours ago.

Mr. Robot aims to have 10 episodes per season, each one following software version numbering (e.g. 1.1, 1.5, or 1.10), which is pretty cool and I don't remember seeing something like this before.

After watching the first episode, which just aired tonight in US, I have to admit that I was amazed at the fact that the script offers detailed information about many things computer related, especially about Linux kernel-based operating systems.

KDE vs. GNOME

At some point in the pilot, there's a scene where a guy comes into an office where the main character works and looks curious at his monitor and starts a conversation about open-source desktop environments like KDE and GNOME.

(Spoiler alter) The guy, a bit amazed, says to Elliot (Rami Malek) "So I see you're running GNOME... You know, I'm actually on KDE myself, I know this desktop environment is supposed to be better (referring to GNOME), but, you know what they say, old habits, they die hard."

I watch a lot of movies and television series, and since The Matrix, I was never amazed by a TV show, or movie until today. Mr. Robot changes that for me, especially that now I work with GNU/Linux operating systems and I've used all sorts of desktop environments.

Is Mr. Robot really using Linux OSes?

If you like Linux and you're a hardcore geek like me, I strongly recommend watching the Mr. Robot TV series. It's something entirely new, something that I didn't see until now on television.

The script, at least for the first episode, is rich in computer terms, and I'm not talking about basic things like RAM, CPU, USB, HDMI, or LCD. They talk about sysadmins, R.U.D.Y. attacks, rootkits, and a lot of password hacking stuff.

I am also watching the new CSI: Cyber TV series, where FBI's Cyber Crime Division hunts bad guys on the Internet, but if you're watching the news lately, you would know that they're not doing a very good job at that, and it's kind of silly.

However, it's still Hollywood, though, so I did not manage to get a clear look at the desktop environments used in the show. I was very curious to know if they are really using Linux on those computers, but either they're using custom layouts or other OSes disguised to resemble a Linux desktop environment, I didn't recognize anything.

Maybe you guys have a better luck at that, or maybe they will reveal more in the next episodes, which I am eagerly awaiting. Anyway, no matter if they're using Linux (some scenes show Linux terminals  though), Mr. Robot's script is great and offers a new level of entertainment that's on par with today's computer trends, and it's awesome, though I would be a bit disappointed to find out that they're not really using Linux on the desktop PCs.