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PS2 Linux Kit Shipping in May
subharmonic writes: "Sony announced through an e-mail that the Linux PS2 kits were available for pre-order. The kits should be shipped May 22nd. There's a FAQ and a order site."
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IBM is been embracing Linux for a while now.
It's good to hear that linux is being embraced by a more consumer level oriented company.
Does a 1.2Ghz PC have one of THESE for you to play with? :)
python -c "x='python -c %sx=%s; print x%%(chr(34),repr(x),chr(34))%s'; print x%(chr(34),repr(x),chr(34))"
Sony is screwing itself with this risky legal move!
Although the legality of archiving copy-protected computer programs under the backup clause of copyright law was established in the 1988 Vault v. Quaid legal dispute, "general purpose" computing devices are permitted lots of special treatment vs. game consoles.
Regular issue, game console software (N64, Dreamcast, PSX, PS2, Gameboy) is freely rentable at Blockbuster and other rental stores.
And Sony dislikes this.
Although ENTERTAINMENT software is rentable under fair use doctrine of cpyright law, and Wintel game titles are freely rentable at some brave stores, pc software straddles the legal line. Utilities are rarely rented.
Sony hates the chips that allow PS2 to run archived backup copies from CDR and DVD-RAM. Some of these chips are NEO, NEO4, and Messiah. Some solutions require no soldering at all, some require as many as 25 wires. But Sony wants US Customs to strongarm all importer-resellers and private citizens.
NEO4 plays any region DVD and BOOTs copies including PAL ackups. But most people go for as few a wire solution as possible access backups their valuable game media. Many PS@ backup solutions use a cheap Boot OS such as a GameShark CD or a competitor of GameShark. So a person usually needs to buy a chip, a boot cd, and a PS2.
And they use DMCA to do it. But the moment they try to restrict Blockbuster by claiming that the PS2 is now functionally a "GENERAL PURPOSE COMPUTING DEVICE" complete with keyboard and Linux-OS they will legally screw themselves.
Why?
Because once it runs a general purpose OS, it is no longer treated as a game conole by law and the free sale of archiving software and archiving hardware is 100% legal. US Citizens have legal rights to make backups of their own general purpose software (within reason)
So to bottle up Blockbuster, Sony's stupid little gambit will open floodgates to allow people to widely have access to software and hardware backup tools.
I thinks Sony made a huge mistake in their greedy miscalculated rush.
Sony does pay consultants to log into Remarq (supernews) directly to delete PS2 binaries direclty (or parts, or insert spoffed parts). Other pay-fee usenet servers are mostly immune but post-deletion wars are rampant the last 60 days. But PS2 backups can be found usually all over the place.
I do not own a PS2 by the way. I only believe in emulations and emulating hardware to run my legally purchased software, including PSX (PS-1).
sigh....
People never mod anonymous tipsters regularly anymore so few may read this opinion, but slashdot used to work well and moderators used to read level 0, but so many angry and upset people seem to lash out with trolling to make being anon a sad task.
-anon
I'm buying the kit because it will turn my PS2 into the ULTIMATE media device. I plan on using it to run MAME, SNES, and Atari emulators on my TV and being able to use my PS2 controllers. Also I will be playing my music videos (350+ of em) I have collected on my comp, on my TV. The emulation and videos alone are worth it for me. Yes I know I can get a USB video output to my TV thing, but then again, that just wouldn't be as cool as having my PS2 on my LAN, now would it? :)
-Alex
Actually, if you read the FAQ, there are detailed manuals included for the Graphics Synthesizer, the Emotion Engine, VU0 and VU1, the DMA controller, and the mpeg2 decoder. Which is pretty damn low-level.
They say you can compile a new kernel and put it in if you want to port it. The only thing the hardware abstraction layer keeps you from doing is reading anything other than a genuine PSX or PS2 CD or DVD. Which shouldn't be a big problem for anyone other than pirates, given that there's a 10/100 ethernet adaptor and a 40gb hard drive included. You can rip your own music and such on your pc, then transfer it over to the ps2.
While it's not completely open, I understand Sony's reasons for disabling access to the dvd drive if there's anything other than an official disc in there. It'd be very easy to program a linux software mod otherwise.
-- Your IP is showing
The hardware abstraction layer was put in place to preserve and slightly extend the PS2 copy protection scheme. It wouldn't exactly be a trivial matter to remove that protection, but it is possible. Sony knows this.
A few of the SCEA dev support people chat on the forums on playstation2-linux.com. Bret Mogilefsky, also known as mogul, posted to this thread, saying:
You need a memory card, and once its formatted for linux, it can't be used for Ps2 games. Also, you can use the hard drive for PS2 games, but i think the network adapter is ok (no dial up on the BBA that comes with the linux kit).
All in all, i think you'd be better off with a dreamcast. Everything is a lot cheaper, so when you're sick of it in a month, you haven't invested a lot of money into it...