Slashdot Mirror
PlayStation 3 HDD to Ship With Linux
timtwobuck writes "Gamespot.com is reporting that Ken Kutaragi, president of Sony Computer Entertainment, has disclosed in an interview that PlayStation 3 will natively run Linux. In fact, it will come bundled with it, if you purchase the HDD peripheral." From the article: "But while Linux would require a hard drive to run on, Kutaragi told Impress PC Watch, 'We're not going to equip [the PS3 with] a HDD by default, because no matter how much [capacity] we put in it, it won't be enough.' It was unclear whether he was referring to the previously known fact that the PS3 would not have an internal hard drive or whether he was indicating that the device would not come with the external 2.5-inch detachable HDD outlined in the specs revealed at E3."
This is not suprising. Of course they wouldn't ship it with Windows, they don't want to fund their direct competitor!
No. WINE is not an emulator, Cell is not an x86 chip.
++ Say to Elrond "Hello.".
Elrond says "No.". Elrond gives you some lunch.
YES! OMG YES!!!! This is a dream come true. Thank you Sony. Thank you IBM. WTF is this in the Games section? This is big news for a sub set of geeks. This will be the largest installed base linux has, on interesting hardware.
"A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming, is not worth knowing" - Alan Perlis
Nonesense. Never came close to filling up the 8gig on my Xbox, but every game I've played has made use of the HD because they KNOW it will be there.
Of course, since the HD is optional with the PS3, devs will have to assume that it will not be there to reach a wider installed base. PS3 has just made developing for their system more difficult by releasing two products - ones with HDs and ones without.
Even just a small 4gig drive might have been helpful and inexpensive.
It's a good marketing play. It just shifted my preference toward PS3 and away from Xbox360. The ability to use Linux on a system with some rather exotic symmetrical processors, and play all previous PS titles. Right now, all Xbox 360 has going for it is the promise of Halo 3.
Other PC Operating Systems can run too, such as Windows and Tiger (Max OS X 10.4), if the publishers want [them] to do so. That happening seems so far-fetched to me that its very mention undermines the believability of anything else said in the article. That said, it is good to hear Sony will continue to support linux on PlayStation.
This announcement makes me wonder if Sony is positioning ps3 as a general purpose pc replacement. If the HDD includes not only the kernel but a windowing environment(KDE, gnome, etc...), I could see more than a few people using ps3 as thier primary web/email/office box. Assuming that it has keyboard/mouse support, the ps3 has more than enough power to handle normal pc usage.
me as a linux fetish put all my hopes and prayers into sonys PS3. since apple/microsoft/intel more and more try to get rid of us linuxers i think the future of linux is in the cell processor. also the ps3 used as standardized personalcomputer would take away a lot of work to figure out drivers and sh*t.
Terrible move by Sony. Developers ignored the PS2 hard drive because the installed base was so low, and I'm sure PS3 will be the same way.
LordBodak's journal.
Simple - becasue they will get FOSS people to help them with the API's. Not only that but this means that there is already a Linux ported to Cell, so that's proof that it works for IBM to start selling Cell PC's. All in all it doesn't cost them much to put it on the HDD but they get good press, a few more sales, and most importantly free dev work to advance the software for Cell (compiler, graphics API's for the chipset that the PS3 uses etc). Remember - this thing won't run Direct X and programming for that many processors (and taking advantage of them) is a real problem. Sony needs all the help it can get.
It couldn't run wine nativly , but could it run Mac on linux
The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
In TFA, Kutaragi says "even though we're making something that has the capability to be recognized as a supercomputer and requires paperwork when exporting or importing, the government sees it as a 'toy.'" Obviously, this is a ridiculous statement. The new consoles are extremely powerful, but Kutaragi completely ignores the fact that the lack of memory in all three consoles reduces them to just above the status of today's computers - nowhere near a supercomputer.
The problem here is that Sony is pushing video game systems as "entertainment supercomputers." That's not what they should be for, and that's why the quality of Sony games really hasn't improved. They're not pushing innovation. The EyeToy is a neat idea, but every game for it is basically an oversized minigame. And that's been pretty much all their innovation since... well, since they decided to make the PS1.
However, Sony's business model is obviously the most successful. I have a feeling that, unfortunately, Nintendo may die out in this or the next generation of consoles. They may last longer in the handheld industry, but kids these days want hookers, blood, and gore in their games, rather than fun, replayability, and innovation. Microsoft will increase its market share, and the competition between Sony and MS will drive gaming to a low point, as the market becomes saturated with racers, shooters, and dull, homoegeneous platformers. Eventually consumers will realize what they've done and - I hope - there will be an upwelling of creativity in games.
Does this sentence strike anyone else as bizzarely phrased?
If we read the last part of the sentence, it says:
"no matter how much [capacity] we put in it, it won't be enough."
I take that to mean that the PS3 requires a lot of storage capacity. BUT, then the sentence says "We're not going to equip [the PS3 with] a HDD by default because [of this]."
That makes no sense whatsoever. If the PS3 requires large storage capacity, then that is even MORE reason to include the Hard Disk Drive.
In other words, this sentence (which is at the heart of the news clip), is logically FLAWED.
This is the equivalent of saying "No matter how big we make the gas tank on this new car that we are building, it won't be big enough. So our new car won't have any gas tank at all."
Does this make any sense?? NO!
I wish people would read what they write out loud, to make sure that it is logically consistent.
The operative word here is:
EDITORS,
n.
One who edits, especially as an occupation.
The point here is that they should at least attempt to correct the mistakes that someone submits. The simplest task should be to correct simple spelling errors. Such as; changing willcom to will come. I know they get a lot of submissions, but for they few that get selected, they should check that the spelling is correct. It isn't that hard to run a paragraph through spellchecker.
I'm sure I'll get modded down to Hades for this little rant. Maybe I should've posted as an AC, but I'll stick to my guns here.
"Plans are for fools! Oglethorpe, the plutonian (Aqua Teen Hunger Force)
Any computer, stereo, car, house, mp3 player, mail-order bride I buy will never be good enough, so I'm just not going to buy anything.
And any food I eat for lunch today just won't be enough to fill me tomorrow. So I'm going to stop eating, too.
If this is true, and they write some reasonable accelerated X drivers, they've more or less sold me on the PS3. Why?
One reason: MythTV frontend. It's hard to justify spending $350 on a console. Spending $350-$400 on a console that replaces a $250-$300 mini-ITX box... that's much easier to justify. You gotta figure that MythTV will be ported pretty fast to it, if the video and audio drivers are reasonable. I also rather like the idea of using MythGame to emulate other systems - really makes for an all-in-one entertainment system.
X-BOX 360 was definitely a competitor for my cash and home media network, but I just can't bring myself to deal with MCE. For all its benefits (easy setup, well-supported), it has niggling annoyances (lack of friendly open formats, multiple tuner issues, proprietary extenders).
-Erwos
Plausible conjecture should not be misrepresented as proof positive.
KK: Linux is legacy, but it will be a start.
Legacy? Riiight. No Linux fanboy here, but I know bullshit when I see it.
In the case of the Cell, operation systems are applications.
Wah?
The kernel will be running on the Cell, and multiple OSes will be running on top of that as applications.
Bah?
Of course, the PS3 can run Linux. If Linux can run, so can Lindows.
Comparing kernels to distros here. Despite the fact that the latter is built upon the former.
Other PC Operating Systems can run too, such as Windows and Tiger (Max OS X 10.4), if the publishers want [them] to do so.
But the odds of Microsoft or Apple doing so are zero. So why say it?
I'm sure the guys clever. But he's not technical in the slightest.
I think Nintendo will manage to stick around, because no matter what the kids want these days or will in the future, there's lots of non-kids with disposable income.
I'm over my blood and gore phase, but I still like games. I'm guessing I'll be playing games for the rest of my life, and I'm interested in new and fun things. If Nintendo keeps producing good stuff, I'll keep buying it. And I think a good number of people will too.
One time I threw a brick at a duck.
Seriously, why? It's not like the addition of Linux on the hard drive is going to garner any more sales of the product.
What makes you think that is true?
To start with, some fringe people WILL buy the device if it supports Linux, that may otherwise have bought soemthing else.
Now consider the whole XBox hacking scene with stuff like media player and the like. If in the next round the PS3 supports Linux with no hacks, then where are the people working on those projects going to go? Probably the PS3.
Then fast forward a year later when you have multiple choices for media centers and other interesting programs running on the PS3 and no other game console. Don't you think at least a few people would be interested in this?
In my own case, I am probably going to buy a PS3 regardless. However currently I have zero interest in a PSP, which would change if I could program for it and turn it into a universal remote.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
On the serious side, this is probably what sony wants to avoid. A lot of people were devoted to hacking the current consoles to run linux on them - and incidentally opened it up for piracy along the way. If it runs linux from day 1 there will be less people working to crack it. Won't hurt the big piracy orgs, but could stop a few of the smaller ones.
I am trolling
What's the point of a hard drive in a console? Put in CD. Play. Save to a little memory card thingy. PATCHES. If consoles are ever going to be serious players for online gaming they need so support patches. Ever play SOCOM II online? That game sucked after about a week because of all of the cheats and bugs. I hope sony includes some sort of hard drive (even if its small) right out of the box because if it's an add-on fewer games will support it because they don't want to trim their potential market.
I couldn't agree more. Besides the cost implications of having the HD come standard, I'm sure that Sony feels that the reception of the ps3 by the media and gamer community was so much greater than Xbox360 that they could safely take the hit in perception and still wind up a winner. An expensive gamble. I'd agree that ps3 probably has more buzz... but not THAT much more buzz.
You can almost hear the sound of mass high-fiving coming from Redmond. Not only does do they have the HD advantage, but there is simply no way that Sony is going to be able to put a cap on the royalty-free homebrew gaming exchange. My guess is that they figure the homebrew market wont big enough to be a concern, or maybe this is a move prompted by Nintendo (the rumor is that, like iTunes music store, indy developers will be able to create content for the Revolution's download service).
However, I still think Sony can change their mind. When they announced that the PSP would have 8 megs of RAM, the community balked and the developers were in a riot. A couple months of bad press and Sony revised the specs and upped the RAM to 32megs ("what? 8 megs? we never said 8 megs!").
Rest assured that if the media love-fest dies, or if the 360 gets too popular, sony will do an about-face. By then, however, the damage will be done on the first generation titles.