Looking Closely at the Restrictions of Linux on the PS2

Hal-kun writes: "I wrote an interesting article about Sony's upcoming Linux distro for the PS2 and some intellectual property concerns I have with it. It's an intresting look at how Sony limits the ability to have full access to the system, yet being able to keep it under GPL."

Comments

Bravery

[jeremyp]

"I wrote an interesting article" - very brave, just aching to be flamed :-)

I think I'll read it now.

how they limit it

[awing0]

They can release the whole source for their linux OS. The playstation and playstation 2 have copywrite protection that searches for "bad" areas of the disc, know as the boot sector. Domestic CD-RW drives cannot perfectly duplicate these discs, so you have to "modify" your console to get it to boot these discs. Sony has recently been going after the makers of the devices that allow you to boot CD-R's and DVD-R's. So, most people, even with the PS2 linux source, couldn't use it without buying Sony's disc. They could also make it so big that you can't fit it on a 700MB disc, being a DVD release only, which would further prevent most from getting it for free.

Re:how they limit it

[Hougaard]

A couble of comments:

1) Its actually not "bad areas" that Sony is using with PS2 discs. They have encoded a sort of sub-signal onto the disc that bruners cannot recreate and more important, nor can asian "copy shops".

2) The PS1 discs has a error written into the TOC but CloneCD (aand others) deals with this without problems.

3) Developers can actually buy CDR's at Sony with the copyprotection on, so they can burn discs to test on non development equipment.

4) Sonys DVD-ROM's has the same copyprotection buildin as the CD's. So even with a DVD-R (Burned on the A03) you cannot boot with a modchip.

Re:how they limit it

[zeno_2]

Im pretty amazed that Sony could have a blank cdr disk with copy protection already built in. I thought that it *had* to be done by a normal cd press (or whatever they use to mass produce cds) and not something you could put on a cdr (from what I know its different then a cd, the chemicals/metals used in the disk).

I could be wrong though =)

Red rag to a bull

[joebp]

In order to get Linux running on your PS2, you must boot the system using the PS2 Linux DVD. During boot, after all the copy-protection stuff is taken care of, the system lays down the Runtime Environment. This is basically a layer that hides access to the SPU2 (Sound Processing Unit), the input/output processor, the hard drive, the CD/DVD-ROM system, the controllers, memory cards, USB, i.Link and other peripherals.

I doubt it'll be long before there's a work-around. Placing such limitations on a piece of hardware or software never works.

See: CSS, DVD regioning, Windows XP Product Activation, PS2 Copy Protection, eBook encryption, et al.

When will big business learn? If something is secured in a paranoid way, it will be overcome to a degree. The prize is too big.

Re:Red rag to a bull

[Erasmus Darwin]

"I doubt it'll be long before there's a work-around."

Yes, but it's worth considering how involved the work-around is. For example, in the realm of books, the copy-protection work-around involves the rather tedious task of either manually retyping the entire book or using a scanner and OCR software. It's doable, but it's certainly not easy.

Likewise, if the PS2 work-around is inconvenient enough (such as the traditional mod-chip solution, which requires playing around with solder and several hundred dollars worth of easily broken Playstation internal hardware), it's going to reduce the number of people that use it. Compare this to the Dreamcast, where the copy protection was (as I understand it) completely defeatable on the software level -- you just had to download games cracked by other people, and you were set. The only requirements were having broadband and a CD burner (or a nearby friend with the same).

Anyway, I suspect one of the reasons behind Sony's goofy intermediate device driver system is to keep the Linux kit from turning into a easy, modchip-free copy protection breaker. Without their (admittedly annoying) protection system in place, I could see the PS2 Linux system being used as a giant bootloader to get the PS2 to read and execute a burned game. There would still be other software hurdles to overcome (such as any in-game copy protection checks and chopping things down to fit on a CD), but those're the same purely software hurdles that're already regularly tackled by cracking groups.

In short, even though I don't like the protection mechanisms Sony's introduced, I can understand why they did it.

don't look now...

[buzban]

Linux and proprietary hardware do not go hand-in-hand.

...there are a lot of people gonna be *real* surprised at this part. Take for example embedded devices or internet appliances...

pun or just dumb???

[Mr. Quick]

Allow me to segway for a bit;

either that's funny, or he's just dumb.

Correction to the article

[neier]

(slightly off-topic)
Where you mention "pull price", that is actually the pre-tax price of whatever you are buying. In your case, 3%. The tax is now 5%; but the net info on the labels is the same.

In case anyone is curious, there are actual laws in Japan prohibiting the selling of books, magazines, and other things at a lower-than-retail cost. It falls under "protecting the cultural heritage" or something.

Sony and Warranty

[sargon666777]

Personally I have had bad experiences with Sony. I have had 4 PS1's and 1 PS2, and a multitude of other Sony products. While typically for the most part the products are good the one thing that gets me about Sony is Warranty and support. Even the most minor thing is a instant void of warranty. I watched them void a friend of mines warranty on his PS2 becuase his fiber audio out cable wasnt made by Sony. I've also seen them do the same thing for the composite cable on the way out, and even power cables on the PS1. Not to mention non Sony memory cards, yes and even games. Which brings me to my point. If using anything non-Sony voids a warranty.... What happens if you add anything at all to the Linux distro they provide you with. Does that void your warranty? Or are they making exceptions in thier policy this time. I'm willing to bet they aren't making any exceptions.

Re:Sony and Warranty

[miracle69]

I've had a similar bad experience with Sony myself.

When I broke the screen on my palm (customer abuse), I called Palm and asked if they had a replace/exchange/repair type policy. They did. For 100 bucks, I got a refurbished palm shipped to me, then I shipped my broken one back to them. Very resonable policy for a portable electronic device.

I had broken my Clie screen (customer abuse) and called to see if they had a replace/exchange/repair type policy. They didn't. They were less than useless. Unfortunately, I had tied myself too much to their memory stick, so I had to get another Clie - but I picked up the cheapest one instead of trying to get some extra whiz-bang features.

I won't be buying other Sony PDAs in the future.

Palm - build a kick-ass next generation PDA and my money is yours.

Re:Sony and Warranty

[pherris]

Maybe Sony hasn't heard of the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act (15 U.S.C. 2302(C))?

This federal law regulates warranties for the protection of consumers. The essence of this law concerning aftermarket parts is that a manufacturer may not condition a written or implied warranty on the consumers using parts or services which are identified by brand, trade, or corporate name (such as the company's makers brand) unless the parts or service are provided free of charge. The law means that the use of an aftermarket part alone is not cause for denying the warranty. However, the law's protection does not extend to aftermarket parts in situations where such parts actually caused the damage being claimed under the warranty.

pherris

Re:Sony and Warranty

[ncc74656]

When I broke the screen on my palm (customer abuse), I called Palm and asked if they had a replace/exchange/repair type policy. They did. For 100 bucks, I got a refurbished palm shipped to me, then I shipped my broken one back to them. Very resonable policy for a portable electronic device.

3Com accidentally sent me a Palm III to replace a PalmPilot Pro under that $100 replacement deal a few years ago (fell off my bike on the way to class and landed on my Palm...I thought I had lost my notes, but it worked well enough to sync everything out). I called to let them know of their error...they said I could keep it or, if I really wanted, I could send it back in and they'd send a PalmPilot Pro. Guess which option I took. :-)

I had broken my Clie screen (customer abuse) and called to see if they had a replace/exchange/repair type policy. They didn't. They were less than useless. Unfortunately, I had tied myself too much to their memory stick, so I had to get another Clie - but I picked up the cheapest one instead of trying to get some extra whiz-bang features.

A Sony car stereo that I bought a couple of years ago conked out after a few months. It was purchased as new old stock and I had a receipt for it (it was an older shaft-type unit with a reasonably decent feature set...you try to find something better than a $20 parts-store radio that'll fit a '77 Olds without hacking the dash to bits). I took it to a local repair shop for what I figured would be an in-warranty repair. To make a long story short, even with the dated receipt, Sony wouldn't honor its own warranty.

I won't be buying other Sony PDAs in the future.

If I were you, I wouldn't buy anything Sony. They might've made decent stuff in the past (my dad has an open-reel tape deck that's almost as old as I am that still works AFAIK), but Sony seems to be more about image and style than functionality or making a product that'll hold up to at least normal use.

The PS2 and the X-Box will both be sooo hacked

[buckrogers]

in no time flat. Before the end of the year we will have full access to all the hardware on both systems and have full system specs. And nothing either side does will have any effect on it.

I look forward to ripping DVD's on the PS2 using the hardware decoder, then using a software DIVX to recompress the video so that it would fit on a CD-R. For personal use only. If I want to watch a movie that I bought on some other format or on another hardware platform, then that is my business and allowed under fair use. It would be nice to stream the videos to any screen in the house.

I had a lot of hopes for the indrema, but all to naught. Maybe a hacked Xbox, or hacked PS2 could be the indrema and be a great platform for developing Linux based gaming. Especially if the games where developed using a cross platform game library like SDL so that the games would be easy to cross port to any system.

Informative article.

[bigginal]

This article shows what Sony has done to limit access to the system, but it doesn't say exactly how Sony has stayed within the GPL, or how it is only staying within the GPL through "shifty" means.

Quick summary? Sure: There are so many limitations to the "Runtime Environment" that I don't know why anyone would want to have one. Basically every hardware interface is disabled, and you're not going to get much hard disk space using that whopping 8MB memory card (so you're limited in how many external programs you can run).

This thing sounds so crappy that I'd doubt that there's even a compiler on the system!
-bigginal

Re:Informative article.

[zudo]

Basically every hardware interface is disabled, and you're not going to get much hard disk space using that whopping 8MB memory card

No, no, no. That is simply not true. As documented at this playstation community web site (set up to support ps2 linux). While the complete hardware specification is indeed not made available, the device drivers (with source code) allow access to the restricted i/o devices. So you WILL have access to the hard disk, although you won't be able to make cd/dvds that you can read on the ps2.

Also, while the i/o and sound subsystems are wrapped up in the RTE, by contrast the EE cpu, the vector units, the DMAC and the GS are not only fully open for you to play with, but their specs are provided in the proper system manuals (provided on disc) and libs tools and source code are provided to help you use them. Put another way, you have full access to the graphics and cpu side of ps2. This is great for anyone wanting to play with the ps2s awesome graphics power, and a real opportunity for anyone wanting to get into games development!

Re:Informative article.

[Bazman]

It sounds like linux sits on top of the Runtime Environment, much like an emulator sits on top of the host OS of another system. They can release the Runtime Environment under any license they want, linux would just be a GPL app running on it.

Baz

Sync on green

[zudo]

Over here in Europe our ps2s won't play dvd's properly through an RGB lead (basically similar to your component leads, i.e. the clearest best picture you can get), they come out green.

I hadn't realised until now how that was done, they must be using the same sync on green on/off functionality to restrict our playback.

When this was first discovered at launch a lot of people (myself included) were upset about this, if you want to play games at their best AND watch dvd's you have to keep switching leads. Sony claim they HAD to limit playback in this way (cos of the marcovision thing, I think), but most standalone dvd's over here, including ones manufactured by Sony DO let you play dvd's over an RGB lead.

Thankfully DVD Regionx from Datel enables dvd playback through rgb, as well as allowing discs from any region to be played.

Re:Sync on green

[sph]

Sony claim they HAD to limit playback in this way (cos of the marcovision thing, I think), but most standalone dvd's over here, including ones manufactured by Sony DO let you play dvd's over an RGB lead.

This isn't very believable explanation from Sony. It is true that Macrovision has not been specified for RGB, only composite and S-video, but that's because most of the consumer-level equipment can't record RGB signal. And because VHS works with composite anyway it doesn't even matter.

Of course RGB signal is far superior to both S-video and composite, because all color components are separate, and because it is the "native" format of CRT-television, and every additional signal conversion will degrade the quality of the picture, no matter how it's done. Also, RGB doesn't have NTSC or PAL color encoding (because it's RGB, duh), so with RGB PAL-television doesn't have to support NTSC to watch imported NTSC-formatted DVDs in color and full quality (and vice versa). Actually, this might be more realistic reason for out-of-box PS2 not displaying RGB correctly with DVDs...

Re:I like it

[MaxQuordlepleen]

That's pretty clever, though I'm also fairly certain that this will only spur open source developers to develop a Linux that will run on the bare metal.

Hmm, I'm not so sure. It's possible, of course, but I think Sony's using a smart tactic to limit hackers: give them half of what they want.

By providing a Linux for the PS/2, even an (apparently) semi-crippled Linux, they have reduced the number of people who will work on or support serious efforts to hack the hardware. Lots of people will be happy to have *any* Linux on the PS/2 and go no further...

It reminds me of..

[saqmaster]

.. the I/Opener.. Ya know, the little tiny Internet browsing PC that was based on a flash-rom linux kernel.. It was a great toy when they first started playing with it, but that's about the limit. A toy.

I can understand why people want to hack about with proprietry hardware and do cool things with them, but what exactly is Sony's point in producing a Linux distribution? From my point of view, they're doing it to keep (in all reality) the minority of box-hackers happy and maybe to prove a point that the PS/2 really is versatile (maybe a plot to scaremonger Microsoft with it's XBOX and the ability to make it do other stuff).

So, in say 6-12 months time, you're going to have PS2's and XBOX's running Linux. Sure, they're powerful machines (the latter comes with faster bits and more I/O), but is there any serious application? The XBOX is fairly bulky, won't really be very space-saving in a rack, but sure, it's a cheap webserver.

It just seems to me that Sony are going to a lot of effort to prove a point - what that point is i'm not quite sure.

Re:It reminds me of..

[Andy_R]

It's probably one of those things that big companies do, where marketing says there's a demand for linux, so they do it, then IP says they need to restrict it, and no-one ever quite twigs that the end product is useless. This reminds me of the 'Yaroze' mini-development kit for the original playstation, it was so hobbled (both in access to features and in terms of who owned the code you make with it) as to be pointless

Sync on green....

[wowbagger]

I keep seeing people who don't understand what "sync on green" is, and this guy is one.
<Electronics_lession>
For *any* monitor, it is required to know when a horizontal scan line starts, when it stops, and where the top of the screen is. This information is called sync, and is seperate from the video data that paints the image.

In a normal, modern monitor, five signal lines go to the monitor:

1. Analog red
2. Analog green
3. Analog blue
4. digital vertical sync
5. digital horizontal sync

Now, the hsync line is in one state while the monitor is scanning across the display, and another state during the time the electron beam is being swept back across the display (the horizontal retrace interval). The vsync line is in one state when the screen is being painted, and another when the beam is brought back to the top of the screen (the vertical retrace.)

Now, in older monitors, to save signal lines, they used a technique call "sync on green". During the normal horizontal scan, the green line was at a voltage between 0V and 1V, with 1V being full on green, and 0V being no green. During horizontal retrace, the green line went to -0.5V to signal sync. During vertical retrace, the green line was -0.5V during the whole scan line, and went to 0V during the horizontal retrace. By suitable filtering and phase-lock techniques the actual sync signals were recovered from this. Thus, a sync on green monitor required only 3 signal lines.

Now, if you take a normal monitor, and connect it to a sync-on-green system, the monitor's sync inputs will be undriven. A multirate monitor will simply turn off it's drive to the screen, assuming the computer is turned off.

Sync on green has nothing to do with "synchronizing the red and blue signals with the green" - they are synchronous in time already.

Your best bet for such things is to go to a computer graveyard, and try to find an old monitor. Many older monitors would do sync on green as well as normal discrete sync.

</Electronics_lession>
<Rant>
What I don't understand is why everybody is getting so excited about this. Sony is locking you away from the hardware - without a massive RE effort you are not going to be able to do much with this system. For the price of the PS2 and the Linux distro and hardware you could by far more useful devices (until somebody cracks all the hardware protection). Assuming somebody does manage to get raw HW access, Sony will make that person disappear in a puff of red smoke.

Why don't we all just ignore these people until they learn to play nice with others? Look at the Atari 2600, the Apple ][, the PC. They were successful because people could hack them. Sony and Apple learned the wrong lesson ("We must have total control! Nobody BUT US CAN MAKE MONEY OFF THIS") rather than the right lesson ("Hardware like parachute - works best when open.").
</Rant>

Re:SONY changes it's mind due to THIS article.

[Arnulf]

The author most writes that (1) Linux is free, and that (2) Sony is evil in protecting it's intellectual property and asks(3) why would a company be so stupid to do so, and concludes that(4) in the end, there is freedom.

Just to clarify a bit (I've read the article)

The author with no word states that "Sony is evil". He explains the situation. There is no judgement. Look closely, what you maybe perceive as such is entirely your own.

Linux is free. So what? That does not make it "good" (versus "evil" profit) per se. It is always what you do with it, or with copyright in general, what defines it as good or bad. Law is neutral, how you follow law or use the holes of a law is the point.

The "conclusion" is none that I can follow. What you think about the author is entirely your own business. What the author wrote could be completely wrong, I cannot prove its validity. However, in human society there is always a minimum of trust. So I trust that, what he wrote is correct.

And I hadn't known this beforehand.

Now I was considering buying this kit. However, after this article I'm only considering it, because I can get a keyboard, hard-disk, and ethernet adapter in one set.

Have a nice day!

-Arnulf

Sony is cool

[kazzuya]

I dunno where you get all this anger against Sony.
Sure it went after Bleem & VGS.. but it had its own reasons (invest hundres of millions of dollars to render PSX famous and someone comes over to ride their horse).

As far as I know, Sony never bothered any *non-commercial* emulators. They knew PSEmu full well but they never even sent an email of warning.
Surely Bleem alerted a bunch of American lawyers, and you might have got in touch with them as an indirect result. But you are not writing from a jail, are you ?

In case, if you haven't noticed, Sony is possibly ready to give up on the super-closed-console approach in order to slowdown Microsoft. Even if they try to keep it somewhat close, they know it won't hold for long.
This is a great chance for Linux, and a great chance for the present and future hacker community to have a fresh new cool system to use in place of the same old PC.
You are not wishing that Sony would ship it's hardware expansion with Windows XP & IE, are you ?

Otsukaresama

Why I have one

[Anonymous Coward]

I have a japanese ps2-linux kit (although really the only thing that makes it japanese is the machine it's running on) and I am personally very glad I have it.

1. as a developer, this gives us a cheap way to give artists/designers tools that actually show how elements will look on the TV (colors), and how PS2 specific art (graphics/sound/etc) will be rendered. it is a huge savings to be able to use TCP/IP and open-gl for these tools. it also makes working from home a bit simpler, and who can argue with that?

2. as a programmer, I get to program two things that I enjoy (just for the hell of it) - linux and ps2 hardware - at the same time. sure, I have a few PCs here that would kick the linux kits ass easily at generic apps, esp. memory-hungry and cpu-hungry apps. but just for the fun of using linux on an embedded system, it's great.

and for a wannabe console game programmer, shit -it's an awesome place to start. you can begin with the familiar ground (linux/open-gl/etc) and slowly move to the real hardware specific features.

3. as for GPL vs. Sony's IP rights, I think some people around here have this impression that there is some guy at sony "headquarters" in japan making this hugely compicated agenda that is surely not in the best interest of the open software crowd. I'm pretty damn sure this isn't the case, and as a matter of fact, I think there are some people at sony who have gone pretty damn far (maybe even slightly beyond what their lawyers would consider comfortable) to show their support for the open software crowd. some people there do care, but some don't. same as everywhere. and instead of bitching about it, I'm damn happy that they've taking this starting step (opposed to how closed the PS1 was).

there were probably a couple of people at sony who went to bat saying that they should release this linux kit because there'd be a ton of people who'd be very glad to have it. and that stance was probably pretty unpopular. so the message I want to send to those guys it "hey thanks, great job. good start!" so that maybe in the future, they'll go a little bit farther next time and have even fewer things closed.

flame if you want.
whatever.

The reason PS2 Linux was made

[Lurks]

The reason PS2 Linux was made in the first place is to provide an inexpensive dev-kit for Japanese students which are looking to enter the games industry. It's not a bad idea in that regard. I'm pretty puzzled why these did this in the West though. They asked if there was much demand and naturally rather a lot of people put their hands up and expressed basic interest in the PS2 Linux. I'm not sure that there was any level of understanding (and still isn't) on why they were doing this in the first place.

In no way was this designed to be some sort of feasible Linux system in a general sense. Sony don't particularly want you hacking about making drivers and doing weird things with their hardware. In fact they've made it pretty damn difficult to do so. And as for ideas on hacking it to gain more access... I respecfully suggest that people making these overtures don't have that much of an understanding on what the PS2 hardware is like.

However if someone absorbs much of the included hardware manuals, gets a handle on some of the DMA issues and maybe learns a bit of vector unit assembly then they're some ways down the road in becoming a useful PS2 commercial developer. Is that anyone here? I doubt it.

I'm sure the debate will continue and some hard-core Linux evangelists will crow about license issues and that there ought to be unfettered access to the hardware. That's not Sony's agenda and, to be honest, why is this much of a desirable thing anyway. Quite clearly Linux on a PC is more useful in any event.

I'd really like to know if this will sell anything in the West at all. The demand for games developers is such that you can get an entry level job straight out of university anyway. If you're going to work on PS2 dev, they'll factor in that training on the 'real steel' dev-kits anyhow.

If you wanted to do home-brew game development for console-like applications, the Gameboy Advance is an infinitely more feasible platform from a technical point of view. Coupled with the fact you could give a copy of your work to someone else or demonstrate it on a stock GBA, it's got to be a more attractive platform for this sort of thing.

Cracking the Virtual Machine

[liquidsin]

Ok, sure - sooner or later, somebody WILL crack the protection layer and get raw hardware access. Everyone knows it, since I've seen about 80 posts so far saying how fast it will happen. So then what? Everyone's so firm that this will happen. That it MUST happen, for the greater good or something. But what will anyone do with it? Are there going to be any apps that make the PS2/Linux kit a must have? Will somebody develop some breakthrough game? Or will we see more of the consoles running apache that we see now with the Dreamcast? "Yeah, well I have a PS2 running apache! And all I have to do is boot from a dvd and keep all my served files under 8Mb so they fit on a memory card." Bah. Nobody will develop games for it. It'll be nothing more than a novelty that gets stuffed away in the closet when you realize that you can do way more on a PC that, for the same price, has far superior hardware. It's like watching a bunch of cats, scratching at a closed door, and as soon as somebody opens it, they sniff around and walk away.

Because systems go extinct...

[NanoGator]

I like the idea of porting Linux to my Dreamcast because it gives it new life. For example, I want to be able to burn CD's of DIVX-compressed movies and play them back on my Dreamcast, so I can watch them on my TV w/o need of having a computer attached.

If first they port Linux to the DC (which I think has been done...), then they port DivX to the DC, then those are the building blocks I need to do this. Then, they can port Linux to the PS2, and then this code at some point will be able to run on it. Suddenly my extinct game machine has a new purpose.

If anything, it's a fun project. Practicality comes later.

Re:here's a mirror in case the site gets slashdott

[Pope]

any transmission of copyrighted songs over the air, even a sample, must have a royalty paid to the publisher... Japanese singers also do not commonly own the copyright to their own songs, they couldn't give them away even if the wanted to... There is also royalties you have to pay for the subtle music played in department stores, doctor's offices, and on the phone when you are on hold. Videos are divided into "rental" and "non-rental" versions. The "rental" version commonly cost more to the rental house, and the non-rental version must be sold at a particular price point set by the manufacturer for an allotted amount of time.

And this is different from North America how?

Japan isn't THAT different

[URSpider]

When I lived in Japan from 1992-1996, I saw the state of intellectual property there first hand. For example, normal broadcast radio does not play top 40 hits. Actually any transmission of copyrighted songs over the air, even a sample, must have a royalty paid to the publisher. If you want to listen to music on the radio, you find an American military station broadcasting on base. Japanese singers also do not commonly own the copyright to their own songs, they couldn't give them away even if the wanted to. Concert recordings are also illegal. There is also royalties you have to pay for the subtle music played in department stores, doctor's offices, and on the phone when you are on hold.

And, except for not playing Top 40 on the radio, how is this different from the Good ol' USA? Ever heard of ASCAP, buddy? Here in the US, radio stations sure as heck pay royalties for the songs they play. Muzak is a pay service, and they've got to pay their composers. If you play CD's or commercial radio as background music in a store, without paying royalties, you are violating US law! And, how much of their own stuff do you think Garth Brooks and Mariah Carey write?

Do you really want to know?

[DaveWood]

What others have said, about attracting budding developers, is true, but it's not the real story.

The console industry represents a new revenue model for the "personal computer industry" - and it may mean the demise, or at least marginalization, of the PC in the home. You see, Playstation represents 40% of Sony's entire revenues (yes, Sony as in Sony music, pictures, VCRs, telephones, PDA's, computers, etc...). That's an enormous amount of money. And they sell those consoles at a loss for quite a while, too. How, you ask? Because every time a game get's sold, they get a piece of the action. They've used their hardware platform to become an indispensable middle-man, and it's making them filthy rich.

Microsoft, ever vigilant, realizes that a lot of their revenues come from home users, and only games really drive sales of home computers. Console game sales have been spanking PC game sales for some time - to the point where, in a few years, the PC game industry will find itself in a state of serious decline. If not for email, web browsers and word processors, not many people would buy PC's at all. And by the way, consoles, starting with the Dreamcast, are already doing email and web browsing.

It's simple economics - console? $200-300. PC? $500 and up. And for a good PC, that can play the latest games? $1500+. I'm sure you can understand why consoles have an order of magnitude more penetration than PC's.

Microsoft understands this, and that's why the XBox has a hard drive. The console is going to be able to surf and do email and IM and, eventually, do word-processing (USB/ethernet printers!), TiVO-like functionality, etc. etc. That's convergence, baby. And at that point it's replaced the home computer, and PC's are something you only see at the office or at a hobbyist's house. PC games will stop being ported to the console and start being ported from it, if at all (this part is well under way).

Sony is a threat to Microsoft - Bill earnestly wants to keep owning the "home computing" market. They want all those "home consoles" to be running Windows. They want to be the middleman for every game and application sale in the home. The XBox is a multi-billion dollar loss-leader predicated on this very notion.

Sony is a very smart company. They're savvy, they're well run. They know the score, and they have a big first-mover advantage. It's going to be a bloody fight. We know that Microsoft intends to make the XBox into a $300 home computer, based on Windows, to run "consumer applications" along with consumer games, and be waiting at the finish line when the race is over. In this round, Sony just introduced a prototype for _their_ consumer applications platform.

It's Linux.

Obligatory "DC R00lz, PS2 71nux suX0rz" post...

[MsGeek]

The more information comes out about PS2 Linux, the worse it looks. Why buy $300 worth of crap to make Linux run on an uber-proprietary system when you can buy a Dreamcast for $50 (if you can find one still) and have a platform that will boot Linux out of the box? You might have to avoid machines built after October 2000, (although there apparently is a further hack out to create a bootable disk for those machines) but I have one from 9/2000 and it booted the DC Linux disk right out of the box.

The exciting things will happen when someone builds a lightweight Linux booter that will address everything on the DC and allow you to run games designed for Linux. There is still some work to be done to make all the hardware work, but there are a lot of hands on this project so I suspect that it won't be long before the Yamaha audio, the Conexant controllerless modem and full video access (rather than framebuffer) are fully working under Linux.

SEGA is to be commended for releasing as much information as they have on the DC. Their attitude is also commendable: "we stopped making the machine in 2001, have your way with it." Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft have all demonstrated their lack of willingness to play ball with amateur developers. DC is the only game console which is actually FRIENDLY to amateur development.

One last thing...look at my .SIG. Sony is the only company I can think of that is a signatory to both the RIAA and MPAA. That's reason enough to stay away from Sony products.