Save your brains: Get the open source guide to the zombie apocalypse

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The modern zeitgeist is obsessed with zombies. In the past decade, 439 zombie-themed films were made, as compared to only 65 in the previous decade. In 2010, The Walking Dead TV show, based on a successful comic book series by the same name, premiered to 5.3 million people. Its second season premiered to 7 million. Some of our most beloved comic book heroes fell in to the 2005 Marvel Zombies series and its sequels. And even our classic literature isn’t safe. As if Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy hadn’t been through enough, in 2009, along came Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

Number of zombie films released by decade

Could this fascination be the harbinger of impending zombie apocalypse? After all, even the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a zombie preparedness guide. What do they know about a possible zombie virus that we don’t?

Maybe it’s that the zonbi—the reanimated corpse of Haitian culture—is real and ready to threaten the human race. If that’s the case, open source is prepared to handle the impending onslaught of brains-hungry zombies. Open source software has a long history of adapting to fill a need. Code is written to scratch an itch. And beyond that, its principles have influenced a host of other practices, products, and projects that just might save you from moaning, “Mrawwwr braiiiins mrawwwr!” one day.

And since we hope to be able to rebuild a better civilization based on open source, we’ve created The Open Source Guide To The Zombie Apocalypse. It includes recommendations for what you should do when facing five major problems after zombies infest the planet:

  • Energy
  • Finding your friends
  • Preventing boredom
  • Staying alive
  • Rebuilding civilization

Print it out, follow the guidelines, and file it away until Z-Day. We’ll see you on the other side.

Download The Open Source Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse.

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Ruth Suehle is the community leadership manager for Red Hat's Open Source and Standards team. She's co-author of Raspberry Pi Hacks (O'Reilly, December 2013) and a senior editor at GeekMom, a site for those who find their joy in both geekery and parenting.

4 Comments

I enjoyed the guide a lot :) My mind immediately went back to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_car_%28fiction%29">flying cars</a>! We had a lot in the movies and the BBC <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3676694.stm">posted</a> an article about it.

<cite>a new generation of flying cars will be needed to ferry people along skyways. that is the verdict of engineers from the US space agency and aeronautical firms, who envision future commuters travelling by "skycar"</cite>

the FSF went even further, with its <a href="http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/the-car-analogy">car analogy</a>

but we have no flying cars yet, unfortunately.

Awesome guide!

As a compliment, take a look at the most popular mobile application stores and see yourself how many apps are related with zombies.

oh yes! i guess that all those hours that I spend playing Resident Evil since I'm 15 be worthwhile!

Don't we already have enough zombies in Congress to do us all in? They sure seem to be trying hard enough.

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