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Apache Binaries Available for PS2 Linux
cant_get_a_good_nick writes: "From ApacheWeek, probably the best net resource for Apache, comes the announcement of a binary build of Apache 2.0.39 for PS2 Linux. You too can have a server farm for web serving, and GTA3. Be nice and don't kill this guy's downloads page."
Of course, if you really just want low cost, Old PCs or laptops (to get low power consumption) would probably be a better bet. I use an old 200mhz P1 for my linux mail server, and it has more ram then the ps2 :P
Now as far as coolness factor, OTOH...
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
Now I can set up a webserver on my PS2 and visit it with my Dreamcast! Once they get the Xbox running linux, we'll be all set.
now I see it from the flamers' perspective... WOO-HOO. Oh looky looky, someone said the word "Linux". Let's post it on Slashdot! Whoah, someone actually downloaded a file, ran configure, and built a binary? Like everyone else in the world does? WOW! ... Ok. I'm not trying to be flamebait here, but ... it's that easy. ./configure --prefix=~/package/usr make make install tar czvf apache.tgz ~/package/* ... and presto-chango. You have a file called apache.tgz, which you unzip in / and you have apache. /me ducks from the mods, and hopes for well-done M2...
--pi
Ok, now its time for someone to come out with the Rack Mount Kit for the Linux edition of the PS2, complete with mounting for HD etc.
How else is one supposed to make a decent server farm out of these? Has anyone done any serious benchmarking of Linux on this hardware? What's the price/performace for one of these doing (tiff to) pnm to png conversions? (I have the need for small cluster for that, have been looking into AMD's)
I am only half joking.
-Pete
Soccer Goal Plans
Another bizarre, ridiculous and completely useless application of the technology.
Which is exactly why it's so cool.
Dave
I write a blog now, you should be afraid.
Does the distribution include mod_chip?
This is just what I bought my PS2 for!!!!!
Oh wait.
No.
It was to play "Gran Turismo".
- A.P.
"Remember when the U.S. had a drug problem, and then we declared a War On Drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore?"
"You too can have a server farm for web serving, and GTA3."
Well you don't really need a PS2 running Linux to do that. Just use a Windows 2000 box running Apache, then you can serve web pages while playing GTA 3.
You can't do that on a PS2!!!
"Derp de derp."
"Another bizarre, ridiculous and completely useless application of the technology."
Only if you have no imagination. At work, there's a rack-mount web server that's basically an appliance that somebody bought for used for $300. They say it originally cost over $2,000. The nice thing about this type of appliance is that it has few parts to go bad on it. However, it does suffer from lack of features. (It's basically just an HTTP server, no PHP support etc...)
Well, they got Apache running on a PS2. That means that PHP and all those other fun features of it will (presumably) work as well. I don't think it's too far away from burning a DVD, popping it in the PS2, turning it on, and boom you have a webserver running. The neat thing is that this $199 (new, and will always get cheaper) device should, in theory, stay up to date with Apache.
PS2's will eventually go the way of the Dreamcast, and will reach ridiculously low ($50) prices. Personally, I'd rather set one of those things up once and reboot once in a while rather than having to maintain a machine with failing hard-drives and so on. If the thing breaks, buy it with one of those 1 year warranties for $20 and have them swap out with a new one. Heh. I bet you can't get a web appliance with that kinda guarantee! Setup is a breeze!
I'm tempted to look into how to build a PC that boots off a flash card so I can remove all of the moving parts from it. That'd last forever, I bet. Actually, if anybody knows of a good place to find that info, fire a link to me. (I'll do a Google search later, but I'd much rather hear from somebody who's gone down that road.) In the mean time, I have finally found an interesting use for a PS2!
Cheers.
"Derp de derp."
Be nice?
Why post a link if you don't want people to click on it? Why not include a list of users with the story, so we know who is allowed to click on the link and who is not? This way, we won't exceed our quota.
That's rediculous, I know. But saying "be nice..." in this context just says to me "hehehe I know all about this thing called the Slashdot effect, but I don't really care. Just to make it a bit funnier, though, I'll tell everyone to 'be nice' in my most sarcastic tone."
"A terrorist is someone who has a bomb but doesn't have an air force." -William Blum
Comment removed based on user account deletion
The greater benefit of downloading pre-compiled binaries for PS2/Linux is that compiling things on the PS2 takes a very long time. Compiling xmame for example, takes roughly 2-3 hours.
My other first post is car post.
Yeah the linux ps2 kit comes with a keyboard, mouse, vga-adapter cable, hard drive, toothpaste and sony branded comb. That way you can look as good as you feel.
It's kind of funny - Sony, known for its extremely successful Playstation, wants the PS2 to be more like a PC. Microsoft, known just about only in computers, wants the Xbox to be seen only as a gaming console (and/or "entertainment hub").
Sony distributes and supports Linux for its systems, while Microsoft is doing everything they can to stop (non-Microsoft-licensed, therefore not profiting MS directly) PC software from running on their gaming-console/entertainment-hub.
"Hobbyists" port and program software for the PS2, while "hackers" port and program software for the Xbox. (actually I'm pretty sure hackers are doing/have done more to the PS2 right now)
Sony's plan is probably to attack MS in the computer market, what with recent announcements of OS experience they've gained from the Linux project and the Vaio and the handheld Clie and the such. Microsoft's plan is to penetrate the entertainment market, a place where Sony, ironically (or coincidentally?), happens to have a strong foothold in (although I prefer Panasonic, myself, but my friend's Sony VVega is nothing to scoff at).
And through this all, Nintendo sits, GameCube in hand, planning on how to continue in the console gaming market. With the recent retirement of Nintendo mastermind and uber-zombie President Hiroshi Yamauchi, and the recent announcements of the company focusing more on software than hardware, it's anybody's guess as to what is going on at Nintendo of Japan headquarters.
(Don't even begin on the handheld gaming market - Nintendo owned that market for 10 years with a handheld that could only do spinach green and black sprites, and GBA will probably last at least another 5 on its own).
Extraordinary Vacations. Exceptional Prices
Most console hardware blows chunks.
This, if I may be so bold, is total garbage. Consoles may not have much hardware, but what they do have smashes all those crappy ia32 machines - armed with a hardware mindset that even Bill Gates was moved to call "brain dead" a decade and half ago (well, almost - 12, 15, who's counting?) - that we are all using into outer space.
$50 buys you a Dreamcast - better graphics than a PCI graphics card for the same price.
Uh, Apache (older version) was already ported to the PS2 with the PS2 Linux 1.0 distribution. IMHO, I don't see what the big deal is, especially being that the source doesn't require any modification to compile on the PS2.
As far as i'm concerned, i'd rather hear about developers porting over applications/libraries/new linux kernels which need modification to run on the PS2 architecture.
Dreamcast ruled. They had better graphics than PS2 over a year before PS2 was released. These graphics included antialiasing and Z-buffering, both of which Sony still doesn't have. Plus, they had an innovative controller that both Microsoft and Nintendo have copied. Sega, with the Dreamcast, is also the first company to ship an internet-ready console to every customer. Each and every Dreamcast came with a modem (well, except for some non-Japan Asian model Dreamcasts that came without a modem).
Only now, 2 years later, has Sony figured out how to graft on a VGA interface to its PS2. And that VGA interface requires rewriting software and will only work with Sync-On-Green monitors.
Sega was so far ahead of its time, it's not even funny.
My other first post is car post.