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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."
Is this really useful? You need a monitor which supports Sync-on-green to use this. I guess we won't be able to use this as a set-top box.
Great, now I can port all those old arcade games from 10 and 20 years ago onto 21st century platform. Who woulda thunk it?
Considering there is a hard disk and a operation system that is developed by "hackers," what is stopping someone from creating a bootloader for Linux to boot PS2/PSX burns (let it be a DVD-R/CDR).
I don't see why it would not be possible to do so unless they have really done a good job putting protections into place.
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
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.
So I can write a program that flashes the analog light on the controller in morse code.
This will only be of value if I can compile Nethack for PS2. This would have to be the only game to take full advantage of the PS2's graphics :-)
Alister
It looks like Linux (for PlayStation 2) may be a really popular item (for PlayStation 2), especially if Sony (for PlayStation 2) is releasing (for PlayStation 2) this into mainstream (for PlayStation 2) retail (for PlayStation 2) outlets (for PlayStation 2).
Just remember, it's for PlayStation (for Play(for PlayStat(for PlayStation 2)ion 2)Station 2) 2!
With my end-user hat on , I think this is a good thing, as I know that all commercial PS2 bootable DVD will have at least some sort of minimum quality control
With my hacker/geek hat on, I'm kinda disappointed that this won't allow non Sony sanctioned s/w to be produced for the PS2
I'm not sure which way to lean on this one, so it's just an observation at this stage !
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For those who are interested, this is the place to go. Every 'community' like /. stated as one or two guys with an idea...
In other words, the site is kinda small right now.
It helps if you, like, smoke a lot of weed.
Sapere Aude - Homer
All of the hardware can be had for well under $100
And this is exactly why Linux won't make it bigtime,- there's no money in it. I'm sorry to be so negative (but I'm sure the Karma Police will fix that) but here's a company that's actually doing something kewl, and what do they get? People bitching about 2 hundred fucking dollars.
Have you looked a M$ XP license recently?
I mean, what do you expect? Sony people preparing each individual kit by purchasing used gear from eBay???
Show me an other company selling an add-on kit including harddrive, keyboard, mouse and network adaptor AND an OS for $200,-
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Nope.. sorry. too slow and windows is way to bloated for the memory spec of that machine , especially as a guest OS.
Also, VMWARE is i386 only (binary remember).
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?
According to the press release, ``The graphics output requires a high-resolution computer display, with standard output set as XGA (1024 x 768 resolution); home televisions cannot be used as monitors."
This is the only thing that bugs me (well, aside from the fact that I live in Japan and this won't run on my Japanese PS/2, and the Japanese version of the kit is high near impossible to obtain). I don't really _need_ a monitor (I'd just ssh in from my main workstation) but I would really like to be able to, say, watch streaming video on my TV. (Example: Star Trek Enterprise won't be showing in Japan for like, another 2 years. I have been grabbing eps from the 'net and watching them on my crappy 17" LCD monitor, while my 24" TV sits there idle.)
Anybody know more about this? Surely the development of a driver to push video through the RCA video hookup wouldn't be too difficult?
After I wrote my Playstation Documentation Project I have had to dance with Sony playing the intellectual property game with me and Connectix. I've taken up a hobby of watching Sony pretty closely when it comes to them protecting thier I.P. and tend to become even more intrested when they start becoming "generous" like this. It's hard to think that there are no strings attached. Allow me to give you a little history.
/dev you are going to be sorely disappointed. If you can access the CD-ROM, color me suprised.
When Sony released the "Net Yaroze" (A grey PSX painted black for hobbiests), there was a very restrictive licence in the contract you had to sign. This included a "all programs created with the Yaroze are property of Sony" clause. They also popped in an NDA for good mesure too. It was a little too resticting for me.
When I was halfway though my Doc, I let my e-mail show up on a PSXDev mailing list informing them of the Doc I was working on. I almost immidiatly got an e-mail from Sony of Japan(!) asking if I spoke Japanese. When I answered that I did, I got a real nastygram in Japanese basicly saying that if I even think about publising any of the libary commands to the PSX I'd be up the proverbial estuary without means of locomotion. A few months later I published, had a little tussle about the BIOS hooks, and now I'm here.
I haven't played with the Japanese Linux for PS2, but it still stinks. I used to live in Japan and know first hand that they have very restrictive intellectual property laws. (Like music CDs that are made for rental and others that you can buy, but they have to be at a sold at a particular price set by the company.) I can tell you right away, If you are thinking of doing anything that reqires accessing the CD/DVD-ROM, such as DVD Playback, reading files files from a disk, or even finding something in
Be aware that were will probably going to be proprietary drives/libs that you will not be able to reverse without Sony calling the lawyers. I know you will have *ZERO* access to the bootloader. Once again, if this isn't the case, I'll be pleasently suprised again.
Finally, I doubt that you will be able to play PS2 games/DVDs out of the moniter adapter. If you do, if I remeber, you will only get the green channel to show up.
I'm also sure that if you make a copy of the Linux disk for some sap with a hacked harddrive and a modchip, Sony will be knocking.
Just a heads up.
-Joshua Walker
But, looking at Apple's DVD-R compatibility list, they say that a PS2 works fine.
Unfortunately, I'm sure that Sony won't allow redistribution of their accellerated X server; otherwise, you might be able to ship pure Linux game packages on DVD-R.
Umm...they do provide all the hardware except the TV or monitor.
It comes with a 40 GB hard drive, network card, 2 Linux DVDs, a VGA interface adapter, a mouse, and a keyboard. This is a competitive rate for all of this stuff. Plus, you have the guarantee of compatibility.
What else were you planning on putting into your playstation? A floppy drive?
This is a competitive product; most applications don't need a powerful processor, and it really is a full fledged computer which even has an edge for gaming with the built-in hardware. Is $300 too much to pay for a fully loaded computer?
I gotta tell you, I'd never buy a playstation for just the games. But I'd buy one that I could use to run games AND a mature operating system.
Mod me down and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine!
The PS2 boots off the second layer of dual-layer DVD-ROMs. Such DVD's can't be produced by Apple's or anyone else's drives since producing dual-layered disks requires fusing two single-layer disks together, which can only be done in a factory.
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Can I use a TV as my display ?
Yes. However, it is necessary to install Linux (for PlayStation 2) for the first time using a compatible VESA Monitor that supports "sync on green". Once Linux has been installed, it is possible to configure it to boot using TV display from then on. Some digital TV (DTV) modes are also supported (separate cables may be required for DTV).
Which Display Resolutions are supported ?
NTSC/PAL interlaced and non-interlaced
DTV 480P, 720P and 1080I modes
VESA modes 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x1024 at 60/75 Hz
More:
Linux (for PlayStation®2) Version 1.0 FAQ
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The press release nor either of the PS2 web sites appeared to mention source code, as far as I could see. So I asked for a clarification.
Color me impressed. Not only did I receive a reply within minutes, but they are indeed fully abiding by the GPL.
This forum message contains the reply with a bit more info.
Thanks, Sony!
I've been contributing to open source projects for 15 years and now these jokers want to sell me that code back?
I don't think thats quite right.
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.
Does anybody know if Sony has any plans to release the kit for European Playstations ?
I'd definately be up for buying one if they did.
Hi... Someone with a clue here (NDA'd PS2 developer). Not only does Sony give out the source and all modifications for the toolchain, but they have the next version up in CVS on their support site for people to tinker with. Source is NOT provided for some original tools written by Sony that have no code in common with the toolchain, nor are they required to provide it.
Your source doesn't sound very knowledgeable.
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.