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.

Comments

Distro

[BJH]

Interestingly enough, the distribution chosen by Sony for the PS2 kit (Kondara Linux, not Kondora as the article states) is about to shut down.

There hasn't been an English announcement yet, but their Japanese site says that the Kondara Project servers (the free development group behind the Kondara distribution, which was retailed by Digital Factory, a commercial enterprise) will be closed down on July 15.

The reason for this is that Digital Factory, which owns the Kondara trademark, has sold its distribution business to another company, and the project was forced to quit using the name Kondara.

Luckily for fans of the distribution, a new group, which looks suspiciously like the old Kondara group, has just kicked off the Momonga Project (momonga is Japanese for flying squirrel).

It'll be interesting to see what Sony do, if anything, in the way of providing an upgrade path for PS2/Linux users.

Sad endings to happy movies

[Graymalkin]

I think the conslusion to this rather informative diddy is spot on, Sony is out to create a network of experienced PS2 programmers. Sony gets oodles of noodles for this move. The PS2 is probably the most popular video game system ever marketed to date, it makes Sony bunches of money. The only problem with the money making aspect is they need a constant stream of games for a system to be popular. Programmers are needed and plenty are interested but as the article says, experience with the platform is not as abundant as people willing to program for it. Sony distributes a system that allows people to poke around the platform and make their own amateur games in their spare time and get 2D6 bonus to their PS2 Programming skill.

Linux is the obvious choice for Sony to pick, not because Linux rox0rz d00dz but because it is a familiar environment for many developers and requires no licensing fee to distribute. The last thing Sony wants is their HDD/eth0 expansion system to cost them more money than it has the potential to make back for them. Paying a $20 or $50 royalty on some commercial OS (pick one, any one) per unit sold will end up costing them in terms of margins. Drives and ethernet adapters that only go down in price as time goes by and shipment volumes increase lead to high margins and eventually profits.

I've thought for a while Sony wants to migrate their computer division from being high priced IBM clone systems to being something proprietary and different. In many of their markets this is an easy sell because there is a shitload of brand loyalty. It might not be terribly difficult in the US either. Sony might pretty easily merge their VAIO desktop computers with future PlayStations. A wide availability of games and media designed specifically for Sony systems could make them a powerful player in the PC market. They already produce a ton of software for their VAIO systems, they could port a good deal of that to whatever OS they might use besides Windows on their new VAIO Stations.

This of course goes back to engendering developer support for the platform. By seeding PS2/3 platform developers early (now) they can set themselves up with a relatively large developer base, independant and otherwise, as long as they can keep their interest. Sony looks like they're intending to paint several markets with one broad brush. Derivitive systems based off the PlayStation architecture; from the dedicated console at $100 for playing games to the $2000 audio video workstation which happens to share 70% of the same parts or interfaces. Maybe Sony is looking to make a new Microsoft-free PC market. Can you forgive them for killing Napster? Tough choice.