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A More In Depth Look at PS/2 Linux
An anonymous reader writes "I have yet to see a GOOD review of the Linux (for Playstation 2) kit... until now... "
The article takes awhile to get to the point, but covers a lot of information
about what you can and can't do w/ the kit, and more interestingly what
the author thinks the kit is intended to accomplish.
He's half right though - Windows is the standard.
In comes my suggestion to Sony. Create a service where I can pay whatever the standard volume licensing fee is to get a bootable version of my Linux software. It would not be difficult to create an automated system to handle the disk creation. If I could pay $10 for a bootable copy of something I made, I probably would. The person from I was talking to did not seem very receptive to the idea. Seems to be this would be the smart compromise to take up.
This is an excellent idea. Why is this post moderated as troll, exactly? Its points are important. If we are going to have Sony releasing this thing for the purpose of getting large numbers of people experienced with development for the Playstation 2, they have to realize that eventually they're going to have to figure out what the "upgrade path", so to speak, for those experienced PS2 programmers to become professional PS2 programmers will be.
Anyway, Sony nonwithstanding, i think it would be really neat if one of the people that already volume-license nonlinux Playstation2 were to buy up some Print-On-Demand hardware, and start a service where people send in their linux games, the games get stored, and you can come by and request shipped to you printings of the linux games in the database. Like that website that does that with t-shirts.
At the least, i have to say, be careful if you GPL your Playstation Linux games, if you do there's nothing to stop a big playstation game house from taking your GPL game, licensing the propeitary bootloader from Sony, and printing up and shipping out your game without paying you a cent... of course they'd manufacture no end of community ill-will, but considering their creation cost for that game was zero, it would still be hard to not make a profit even if no one who knew the truth about where that game came from bought one.
-- super ugly ultraman
First of all it is possiable to take a game over to a friends house. There are multiple ways to do this, first is to take the HD and all with you. Secondly (and easier) you can write a game that runs only off the memeory card. And just take the linux DVD and your memeory card.
Sony does not want to start publishing crappy games at $10 a pop. They would make no money from this and worst of all it could mess up the playstation brand. All the games published today go through a process, that every game must meet certain minimum requirements. You know, like not trashing your memory card, not crashing every 5 minutes, etc. If they just let you publish a disc that process could be totatly circumvented. Not to mention that you could just turn around and start selling your 'hobby' games for 30+ dollars, cutting them out of profits. Don't forget that it costs a lot more per disc to make one disc then a thousand.
I agree that it would be cool, but this is their platform. It is not open and expecting them to open it is silly.