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X-server for PS2

Posted by michael on from the don't-ask-why---ask-why-not dept.

PineGreen writes: "Alllinuxdevices.com has a story today about Metrolink porting their Micro-X server to Playstation2. Sony still refuses to sell their Linux kit outside Japan, and the Blockman Trading version works on PSOne only. Now, when will I have an excuse to buy a PS2?"

1 of 157 comments (clear)

  1. Problems with the PS2 linux... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    I've been reading about the PS2 Linux on some Japanese sites and find the whole thing leaving a bad taste in my mouth. This version on Linux is not free (as in freedom) as you think. 1) First and foremost you have to sign a Non-Discosure agreement when you purchase the system. Because the PS2 is a closed system, Sony will like to keep it that way. 2) You have no access to the CD/DVD-ROM, firmware drivers, or bootsystem. Making a stand-alone app is impossable. 3) Anything that uses sound/graphics/BIOS routines but be done through a closed source staticly-linked lib. It is illigal to redistibute this. 4) The system requres a boot CD-ROM which you also cannot redistibute. 5) The video out reqires a moniter that can use video sync pulses only from the green channel. The PS2 does not use a normal RGB out as it will cause the DVD Macrovision not to work. 6) Odds are Sony will not release this in America beacuse America is too friendly to hackers that like to reverse-engineer things. (Sony v. Bleem & Sony v. Connectix)