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How to Turn a PlayStation 3 Into a Linux PC
MahariBalzitch writes "Popular Mechanics shows step by step guide on how to install Ubuntu Linux on a PlayStation 3 and still keep the PS3 gaming functionality. Now I just need to get my hands on a PS3." Not bad specs for the price, either, since Blu-Ray players still aren't cheap. And though the article calls the procedure "somewhat complicated," it's a lot simpler than was installing Linux from floppies not so many years ago.
Redhat on PS3 at release
/. article on that too).
Exactly what was accomplished here except writing an article about an obvious installation. Sony basically added support to the Linux kernel(their was a
It ain't News for Nerds unless code or a soldering gun was required.
Dude, are you on crack?
1. There is only one sku for the ps3 currently, and it's only 399. There will be a new one soon for 100, but it's basically the same.
2. While you can use a bluray drive for reading bluray discs, you can't actually play movies with it, as per a couple of months ago, or at the very least, not without serious time investment converting the video.
3. Uncharted, Ratchet and Clank, Pixel Junkies Monsters, Warhawk, Folklore, Gran Turismo, Resistance: Fall of Man. All of these are exclusive to the PS3, all of these are highly rated, and there's most likely at least one game in this set that would appeal to you as a gamer, as this largely covers the spectrum of genres available today. AND I hadn't even mentioned Metal Gear, which comes out this month (IIRC).
It's clear that either you're (a. retarded or (b. simply bashing the PS3 because it's cool to do so. But guess what? It's not really cool to do so anymore because it's starting to become a solid system.
The news part of the article isn't so much that it's possible to install linux on a ps3, but that the how-to appeared in a relatively mainstream magazine. The sort of thing you might come across while waiting in a doctor's office. Never mind that a quick web search reveals the instructions - this is introducing the concepts to a wider audience who would otherwise never have even thought of the possibility, and might get some of them thinking.
And that is the news part.
I think you have a good point there. Giving people an (actually pretty severely) crippled version of what they want right out of the gate does seem to have rather diminished the vehemence of some of the hackers(Though, it should be noted, there are some fighting the good fight and attempting to find holes in the VM). Sony has the right to design their hardware however they want; but the whole thing kinda creeps me out. I hope it doesn't become a model of what interacting with hardware in the future will look like. A big layer-o'-omnipotent-and-uninspectable-vender-binary running between you and the hardware at all times... It isn't a pleasant thought.
Or you could just, u know, play the PS1 games on your PS3. Pretty sure all models support PS1 through software. Whereas you may or may not get PS2 support.
-]Phreak Out[-
I don't get it. Ubuntu officially dropped PPC support last year.
So, why would Popular Mechanics recommend Ubuntu when you could download Yellow Dog Linux (for free as well from public mirrors), which is developed by the company hired by Sony to develop linux for the PS3. This sounds somewhat odd.
Disclaimer: I work for Terra Soft Solutions, so I've clearly got a bias here.
I think he meant the processor isn't designed for general purpose computing like a 18-wheeler isn't designed for grocery shopping; you could do it but that's not what it's designed for so it's not the best idea
// MD_Update(&m,buf,j);
Instead of spending atleast 400-450$ on a PS3,
You do not get the point... it is not that you are going to buy a ps3 to install linux. It is that you have a ps3 and want to install Linux just for the sake of it.
Ubuntu is an African word meaning 'I can't configure Debian'
Bandying about GHz numbers and arguing about whether or not it's a real PowerPC processor doesn't get you anywhere. Let's see some results from the only benchmark that matters: the Linux kernel compile benchmark. (It can be accepted by all sides that the PS3 has some fairly monstrous floating point hardware, but sadly that doesn't speed up gcc.)
-- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
That it Microsoft's wet dream right there. Just look at the Zune and it's security model on the rockbox forums.
How amazed would you be to suddenly find that you just forgot what I wrote and you needed to reread my post.... again.