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Sony Annouces Linux PS2 Port for US
krismon writes "Sony has announced that it is gonna release the Linux port(old Slashdot article) for the Playstation 2 in the US, after selling out SUPER fast in japan." I saw this running, it's pretty impressive.
While Sony is really earns its bread in the liscensing market rather than the hardware market, it is still important for them to put units in consumers' homes, because that is the only way to build a userbase for PS2 games.
What is the additional cost for releasing a linux-enabled PS2 machine? Not terribly much. It's the sort of thing linux enthusiasts might release on their own in a few months, given a chance. By putting in this marginal amount of effort, Sony gets both a more valuable commodity and some brownie points among linux enthusiasts.
I honestly can't see a single downside for them. The remarkable point is not that the PS2 is capable of this but rather that Sony actually had the foresight to act upon it. That's the hallmark of a nimble corporation and speaks loads for their future.
Of course, Sony is also in bed with the RIAA and the dvd cca, so anyone who buys a PS2 is going to hell in my book, but that's your choice.
Er, right...because far more people have PlaySation 2 consoles than PC's, and none of them have VCR's so you couldn't dub that summer party video to tape.
I'm nitpicking, and yeah it's a cool hack just like NetBSD or Linux was for the Dreamcast. Sure, people got some emulators and mp3 players going on that console, but that's all. Lots of free-software games for the PS2? I'll remain skeptical...everything I've read indicates that the system is a bitch to program for anyway.
According to popular rumor, the "HomeStation" is Microsoft's 2nd generation XBox. This will provide television recording, internet surfing, games, kitchen sink, etc. How can the poor little PS2 and its successors keep up with that?
How?
By using Open Source software. Currently, the PS2 running Linux has far more applications than the HomeStation (since the HomeStation is still in Development). All Sony has to do is stay ahead of Microsoft.
If Microsoft runs a native windows type OS or something on their HomeStation and markets it as a computer, then we have anti-trust laws being broke even more than now. Microsoft can't get away with owning the hardware and the software.
Keeping
While I agree that the PS2 isn't going to be a general-purpose computing platform in the same sense that your desktop machine is, please keep in mind that consumer electronics/entertainment hardware quite likely represents the next battleground for "mindshare".
Even if the initial implementations are kind of silly, I'm really pleased to see open source software reaching the embedded device market. It becomes a lot harder, for example, to force a completely one-sided "digital rights management" scheme on consumers when there exists more than one viable platform choice for the consumer.
Some are of course questioning WHY?
With a keyboard, mouse, Hard Drive, and Ethernet/Modem adapter, SONY may have essentially created the next cheap home computer, and they'll be able to push this onto the market as such with the right marketing.
You see- back in the days of the Commodore 64 a computer didn't have to have a completely dedicated setup for people. It was fine to have a computer just plugged into the TV for occassional gaming, BBS, and type-work.
The Playstation 2 can perform all of the modern equvilants of these roles, and it doesn't even REALLY need Linux to do it, but why complain that it uses Linux?
While I honestly DOUBT that Linux is going to be a major part of the Sony Playstation's acceptance as a general purpose low-cost computing device, I honestly do think it's a "Good Thing" for Linux. Think of the number of budding coders that could print their first "Hello World" on this thing? And while Microsoft may own the PC market right now they don't own EVERY market, at least, not yet, and there is room for a whole new level of personal computers. A market that hasn't been filled since the last of the Amiga 500's began to die off.
Dreamcast could've had that market, but they ignored it. XBox could have that Market, but Microsoft won't play their cards right (I don't think). Nintendo doesn't want that market or they would've had it a long time ago.
Sony. Linux. It bothers me, but I can see it happening.
"Everything you know is wrong. (And stupid.)"
Moderation Totals: Wrong=2, Stupid=3, Total=5.
I am going to wait for the Linux Hack of the XBox. A 766 Proccessor, 8 GB HDD and NVIDIA video, for $299, can't be beat this side of an E-Machine.
Fascism should more properly be called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power - Benito Mussoli
Why do both MS and Sony want to control the broadband bridgehead into the living room? Because they can then become the toll-booth onto the distribution of electronic services. It may surprise people but Sony has acquired themselves a bank and MS own a controlling stake in a cheque clearing-house. Much like phone companies have to subsidise handsets and stick customers with the long-term contracts, everyone is gunning for a slice of the electronic services that businesses are switching over ... you don't buy airline tickets, you bid for a seat, insurance, superannuation, identity, membership of professional societies, job contracts, even social contacts (rolodex on steroids) ... all these are basically electronic goods that people will be willing to acquire.
The problems is making someone else fork out the capital for infrastructure, the smart people identify the bottlenecks and position themselves where the traffic concentration makes it worthwhile to extract their tax/toll/vig.
Nothing changed from highway robbery days except who gets to collect the loot.
LL
The Japanese version ships with a combo hard-drive/10-100Mbit ethernet connection.
/dev/usb.
The printer port is
Why plug in a cdrom drive? It's got a CD/DVD drive.
We won't know what its uses are until we get them, now will we? Depends on how much 'puting power they have. With only 32MB of RAM, don't go expecting a whole lot.
I will be buying one for the following reasons presently:
Sony Playstation 2: $300
Sony PS2 Linux Kit: probably $200
The convenience of not having to get off the couch when I want to get some porn off the net: priceless.
[insert-platform-name-here] doesnt have much memory and its unexpandable anyway
Famous last words! (Where's the hacker spirit?!)
I'm not the type to go off on a diatribe about how 'bad slashdot has gotten' and how it's 'sold out', but I'm starting to feel like while reading the site, I have to dodge commercials for Sony products. One day I'm reading about a 'call to arms' against the SSSCA and the record industry that's pushing it, the next day I'm passing over "news stories" that scream hooray Sony! Sony being one of the largest parts of the RIAA, and representing a very large amount of political contributions. Feh.
But it's not worth it if i can't re-compile my kernel and learn from looking through the source.
/proc/kmem tricks.
If you did recompile your kernel, how would you boot into it? You can't just burn a new CD yourself because of the PS2 copy protection system. If they haven't designed their bootloader to let you do this then you'd have to resort to
My understanding is that they only have to offer the source to anyone they give a binary to, i.e. anyone who buys a PS2 Linux kit. However, they then can't stop someone who did buy a kit posting the source on the web.