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Sony Announces Version 1.0 Of Linux for Playstation 2
ResearchBuzz writes: "Sony has announced the May 2002 release of Linux (for Playstation 2) Release 1.0." He quotes from the press release: "The company expects the kit to sell for about $199 USD when it is made available in May 2002 exclusively through its website, http://www.us.playstation.com."
Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. continues to redefine the entertainment lifestyle
I was actually excited about this neat-o deal until I read this phrase. Doesn't it seem a bit silly to praise and promote a life filled with entertainment? Or am I being a joykill?
On the other hand, if entertainment is being redefined as Linux hacking, maybe there's a great deal more progress being made than I realized...
.sig last updated Jan. 14, 2000
Looks like most(if not all) of the $199 goes to additional hardware and documentation, nothing unusual about that...
I can't believe people on Slashdot, of all places, still don't understand the GPL at all. If I wanted to, I could make my own Linux distro and charge you $1 million for it, the GPL only requires I provide you with the source code.
It doesn't matter whether you decide to believe Sony is profiting on the hardware or the software, it obviously took them some effort (more than making yet another x86 distro) to port this, so quit whining and don't buy it if you don't want it.
>software is Free as in GPL and can't legally be sold at a profit.
Umm, no. You can sell GPL software, and make it fairly big... ever hear of a little company called IBM, or perhaps Red Hat? Last time I checked they both sold Linux solutions. And Linux is free as in beer, go to www.gnu.org.
Do we hate Sony today?
Last week, we hated Sony for its DRM copy-protection on Sony Memory sticks.
The week before that, we loved Sony because they were releasing a PS2 Linux kit in Japan.
The week before that, we hated Sony because they were a key proponent in creating the DMCA.
The week before that, we liked Sony because of the PS2.
The week before that, we hated Sony because they shutdown an AIBO hack site.
Do we like or hate Sony this week?
Although I see no real reason to buy one other then for the "cool" factor, I do see some potential for making home brew ps2 games. Although games take years to devlope woulden't it be fun to play with a ps2 system and try to make linux based games or port other OS game code to the ps2?
Why the fucking hell do you think that a hacked debian version would be any helpful to you?
... ehm... a bit more then a "hacked up" version...
Sony did LOTS of work on this port - I can hardly belive that you'll get same acceleration of graphics from some 'hacked up' debian distro - not mentioning optimized binaries, heavily modified kernel with USB support (can you compare kernel 2.2.1 USB support to what Sony added there? I doubt)...
Oh, and for $199 you're getting TWO DVD's - one with the source and one is full Linux, which is
Either quit bitching and hack for yourself or go buy it - $199 is not that much for a lot of work they did, plus they give kinda nice hardware...
Hetz (Heunique)
>this kit wouldn't be horribly out of date.
>glibc 2.2.2?
Since when is glibc 2.2.2 horribly out of date? I can see the kernel being mentioned as out of date (2.2.1 from what I saw), but the C library? Sure, it's been out for a year, but there have only been 2 point releases since then, nothing more.
>gcc 2.95.2?
Uhm. What does 2.95.3, or 2.95.4 offer that 2.95.2 doesn't? (And don't even try telling me about 3.0.x.) And how often to you use those features?
>XFree86 3.3.6?
OK, so that might be just a little out of date. But it works. And I really doubt that you'll be doing a whole hell of a lot of 3D on it to begin with; if that were the case, I wouldn't doubt that Sony would release a new version with XFree 4 or something like that in it.
So... what exactly was this about completely out of date software?
Dogma: Dead (mostly because your Karma ran it over)
Actually, I have to apologize for my price misunderstanding... I thought it will be 199$, however it seems as if it is going to sell for 299$ in USA.
/., and that everything with the name linux in it is extremly usable and cool, but still.... its over priced, it doesnt work on TV's...it is unclear if it will work as upcoming Net & hardrive pack as well... too many unclears in order to call it a good value for 299 (or 199 for that matter).
Reuters article on News.com http://news.com.com/2100-1040-825762.html
As to comment on pricing, sony purchases in huge quantities for their computers as it is... those prices are significantly lower than what we pay in retail... how else would xbox cost $300-$320 to produce? If 199$ (or 299$) is right for sony addon, then XBOX should cost 799$ by any means since it has much more hardware in it...
(keep in mind that I dont own XBOX or plan to own one)
I understand this is
What can you do on a game console that you can't do on a formal PC?
You can code for fun. Coding on an PC has become boring. The machine ist not interesting, you have to take care to be "compatible" with all sorts of crap hardware, etc. Game consoles are interesting: powerful small processors, where coding in assembly pays, interesting graphics hardware where you can do cool effects with skill istead of brute force. It's fun.
That said, I doubt, Sony will ever release information about the interesting bits. The vector processors of the emotion engine are top secret, and so ist the graphics processor. That makes it kind of pointless.
Sure it does - the GPL means that if you choose to buy the product you will also have complete source code for the GPL'd portions of it - complete with Sony extensions.
Also note that your $199 buys you a hard drive and ethernet adaptor as well as the Sony extended PS2 supported versions of gcc and XFree86...
How come you find $199 for this a rip off, yet don't complain about RedHat or SuSE selling Linux without hard drives and network adaptors thrown in?
It's Linux whiners and cheapskates like you that put Loki out of business.
I don't think thats quite right.
It is right. Sony chose to organize a port of free software to their platform and, then, sell it to recoup their costs and possibly make a profit. Most free software licenses clearly allow this. Just be thankful that there is yet another platform on which free software is available.
If you don't like the facts that the PS2 is proprietary, DVDs are controlled by megacorporations, and you have to buy the Linux DVD for the PS2 from Sony, then just use another platform (such as a comparably inexpensive PC) to run the same software. You are not forced by anyone to pay for your own code.
Healthcare article at Kuro5hin
A lot of people are miffed that Sony's asking $200 this and so and and so forth, but I think it's an okay deal - think how much a 40 gig hd costs (~$100) and an ethernet card (~30). Throw in a great os that has been ported for the first time to a completely foreign architecture (~ $$ who knows?), coupled with the fact that this stuff is not off-the-shelf but has to be tested and repackaged to fit the exacting specs of the PS2 and I think you've got a pretty good deal. Add the $300 for a PS2 plus the $200 for this kit and maybe another $200 for a decent monitor (if you don't have one already), and you've got yourself an incredibly compact, inexpensive graphics workstation with the added bonus of being able to play PS/PS2 games! Everyone who reads slashdot knows that it won't be long before people start writing stuff - utlilities, games, workarounds - and you've got a new platform. So Sony says the PS2 can't read anything but PS/PS2/DVD discs. Then get a usb CD drive and go to town. I think this is a great opportunity to get another big company behind Linux and actually foster support towards the whole user-empowerment idea. Of course they don't want to release the source code, but we'll stick RMS on 'em. Heh. Njord
I am not flaming just trying to understand after having read most of the feedbacks on /.
Why being so excited about Sony putting up with Linux on PS2. Granted this will probably bring some visibility and increased credibility to the Linux OS (is it good and does it need that really?) The only positive thing is for Sony to get the eggs out of the golden goose, the same way as Red Hat does.
They are the people behing DRM, DMCA, MPAA, and all the ugly things that EFF and other great folks (some of them slashdot readers) are fighting against. Come on, the company is evil, so why are the replies so enthusiastic about this?
If some people just decide to turn to Linux because Sony supports it on their PS2, does the community really needs these people?
I want to understand.
PPA, the girl next door.
-- I feel better now. Thanks for asking.
"If anyone wanted to run Bleem! on the PS2, I'd have to shake them vigourously for a few minutes. The PS2 already runs legacy PSX games natively."
But there are currently no real advantages to playing PSX games on a PS2. If anything, using a PS2 is a disadvantage (as anybody who's ever tried to play Final Fantasy V on it can attest).
The "features" that the PS2 tries to add are faster disc access times (done in a half-assed manner that causes a/v sync problems in many games) and slightly better texture mapping that is either not noticable or makes things generally ugly.
Bleem! and the countless other PSX emulators for the PC, on the other hand, all improve the graphics considerably by not limiting themselves to PSX-quality resolution and polygon rendering. Sony handicapped the PS2 where PSX games are concerned because they and their third-party developers didn't want to see PSX games competing with PS2 games in terms of graphics. Think what would happen if the $19.95 MGS looked as good as the $49.95 MGS2. Consumers be damned. Personally I would have thought that game companies could just write better games that sell on more merits beyond just graphics, but what do I know?
(Not that Nintendo did much better with GBC and GBA backwards compatability, but that's another rant.)
By selling their Linux distro for the PS2 (with gcc, no less!), Sony is opening Pandora's Box. Any control they thought they had over the hardware is out the window, whether they "allow" it or not. The visual gap between PSX and PS2 games will close considerably (if not totally in many cases). And while the Brits can't even get mod chips in their PS2s, I'll be able to play Japanese SATURN games (mmm... Phantasy Star Collection...) on my PS2. Sony's only saving graces here are that the ability to do all this will run the consumers another $200 and won't be playable on a TV (well, until somebody writes a TV driver for the distro).
The "entertainment lifestyle" phrase is a very common one in Japanese marketing. It doesn't translate well into US marketing speak, so it feels a bit disengenous to non-Japanese.
Just one of those things people take for granted, since cultural identity has long been substituted by marketing techniques... not just in the US, but everywhere.
You may have missed it, but the kit includes two DVD's, one of which is all the sources.
I don't know about you, but I don't recall hearing about Windows shipping with a source CD.
The fact that Sony's charging for it is not the point of the GPL. The point is that even though they're charging for it, they still have to release the source. The GPL has never been against selling software.
While true, you missed the point. I prefer the BSD license to the GPL. I actually despise the GPL, and want people to realize what a piece of crap it is... So I point out it's shortcommings all the time. In this case and others, I tend to shatter all the popular myths surrounding it. It's an Open Source worm. Before the GPL got popular, you could use code from any open source project and have no worries about license conflicts. Now, you need to be very careful of the license because the GPL is a self-propagating virus that spreads itself like the plague.
People using the GPL are like all the people donating to the Red Cross, they think they're doing something good (Fighting Microsoft/Saving Lives) when in fact they are not doing anything of the sort. They are acutally being taken advantage of because of their ignorance.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant