Current generation consoles are powerful enough to run most "home" applications. I've got a Playstation 2 Linux kit. Main limitation on that is the RAM which is why I'm posting with Dillo and not Firefox.
I've got a Windows laptop too and even though it has a 7X faster CPU and 16X as much RAM it's performance really isn't as much faster as one might think.
So, not this generation but the next or the one after that.
Personally I see the Mac Mini as a potential console killer, except for a couple of things: The TV out gizmo needs to be standard, and well it's a Mac so game selection is limited.
Getting back on the original topic, I was on IRC once and someone used an uptime/stats/sysinfo script in channel and I popped mine up too for fun.
I saw this book in BN a few weeks ago and I thought, "Hey this might make a good gift for non-techies". And then I saw the price. $20 is too much for what it is, A book like this should be in supermarket end of aisle displays in a pocket sized format and should cost $4.95
But I am one of those people who thinks all tech books are overpriced. Non-techies need good inexpensive books that they can buy at every discount store, drugstore and whatnot and there aren't any.
I'd lay serious odds that they've already got some kind of Linux running on preliminary hardware. I know IBM has Linux running on prototype Cell based servers and they've already submitted Cell patches to the kernel.
Then there's this, which says Linux will come pre-installed on the PS3 HD:
Don't need any mods/shareware, because there are more games than anyone can possibly play. You also don't have to wait 5 years for a sequel to a hit game a la Half-Life, so there's no real "I don't have anything to play so I'll just mod this old game."
So the features that in PC games get added in a mod or expansion pack, are either included in the original game or in the sequel released the next year.
I'm also of the opinion that the homebrew community enables developer laziness.
I leave one of my PS2's on most of the time, but it's got a Linux kit in it so even if I'm not directly in front of it, it might be downloading a torrent or running a compile. I've played with distributed computing clients on it, but don't run them on a regular basis.
They did drop the price of the kit to $99 later on in it's life and the HD is 40GB not 30 and the kit includes a network adapter. Kit owners were the first PS2 owners to have NA's. I know of several kit owners who played THPS3 with their kits before the official rollout of the NA later that year.
I use mine as a desktop too, but you already knew that.:-)
Well worth the money
And I was expecting some PS3 news like this from Sony. Us PS2 Linux "desktop users" served as the test bed. I'd lay odds that the higher ups at Sony knew pretty darn quick that there were non-devs using kits as PC's without much major trouble and having lots of fun doing it.
Is reading/posting to slashdot much? Chatting on freenode with X-chat Using Gaim or Abiword? Playing Nethack? Getting pictures off a SD card with a reader and editing them in the GIMP? Listening to MP3's?
I'm going to say that in all likelyhood it will be a full featured Linux distro. The one for PS2 is, intended for developer use, but it has X, several windowing environments, etc.
Nothing stopping sony from putting a section in the PS3 HDD manual about LInux, what it is, what it can do, etc and then putting a link to a "playstation3-linux.com" website to learn more. They could put a whole Linux for Beginners section in there. The PSP is a pretty complex little device and it's manual is BIG.
I'd lay odds that Linux on the PS3 would boot right into a nice window manager, perhaps KDE3 or XFCE.
Commercials for the HDD could easily be done and not mention Linux at all. HDD for PS3 lets you browse the web, chat, read e-mail, word process and run many free applications." Or they could include a text blurb and Tux image: Powered by Linux for PS3.
Slashdot Mirror
Current generation consoles are powerful enough to run most "home" applications. I've got a Playstation 2 Linux kit. Main limitation on that is the RAM which is why I'm posting with Dillo and not Firefox.
I've got a Windows laptop too and even though it has a 7X faster CPU and 16X as much RAM it's performance really isn't as much faster as one might think.
So, not this generation but the next or the one after that.
Personally I see the Mac Mini as a potential console killer, except for a couple of things: The TV out gizmo needs to be standard, and well it's a Mac so game selection is limited.
Getting back on the original topic, I was on IRC once and someone used an uptime/stats/sysinfo script in channel and I popped mine up too for fun.
Hostname: midgar - OS: Linux 2.2.26-xr1/mips - CPU: MIPS R5900 V2.0 - Processes: 36 - Uptime: 4d 21h 37m - Load Average: 0.31 - Memory Usage: 15.74MB/29.80MB (52.82%) - Disk Usage: 19.96GB/36.17GB (55.19%)
I then got asked, "You're on an SGI box?"
. Just tested it on Firefox on Playstation 2 Linux. myself, wonder why they put that RH 8+ requirement on the page.
I saw this book in BN a few weeks ago and I thought, "Hey this might make a good gift for non-techies". And then I saw the price. $20 is too much for what it is, A book like this should be in supermarket end of aisle displays in a pocket sized format and should cost $4.95
But I am one of those people who thinks all tech books are overpriced. Non-techies need good inexpensive books that they can buy at every discount store, drugstore and whatnot and there aren't any.
That somebody porting Linux is Sony.
/ 145227&tid=10&tid=106
I'd lay serious odds that they've already got some kind of Linux running on preliminary hardware. I know IBM has Linux running on prototype Cell based servers and they've already submitted Cell patches to the kernel.
Then there's this, which says Linux will come pre-installed on the PS3 HD:
http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/06/10
No, it won't
http://playstation2-linux.com/
Don't need any mods/shareware, because there are more games than anyone can possibly play. You also don't have to wait 5 years for a sequel to a hit game a la Half-Life, so there's no real "I don't have anything to play so I'll just mod this old game."
So the features that in PC games get added in a mod or expansion pack, are either included in the original game or in the sequel released the next year.
I'm also of the opinion that the homebrew community enables developer laziness.
Actually I have played a good MMORPG on a console, I have a PS2, equipped with USB ports.
So you type your Linux commands with your keyboard.
They don't need to be shipped when you can just buy any USB keyboard/mouse and it works.
Unless:
1. They a play a lot of PS2 FPS's
2. They play online games (most have keyboard support)
3. They have a Linux kit.
Final Fantasy XI players might leave their machines on, if they've got a bazaar on their character.
Linux kit for PS2 owners often leave their kits on for long compiles and whatnot.
Raises hand.
I leave one of my PS2's on most of the time, but it's got a Linux kit in it so even if I'm not directly in front of it, it might be downloading a torrent or running a compile. I've played with distributed computing clients on it, but don't run them on a regular basis.
No, it will play off the shelf PS3 games. Some of which will be games that a sub $500 computer will not be able to play the PC port of.
I've got a budget laptop, it's not capable of running Final Fantasy XI, but my PS2 is.
Same goes for that Star Wars Battlefront.
Not only that, but the machine could emulate the commodore 64 with Vice! As an aside I've run Vice on the PS2 Linux kit.
but sub 500 dollar machines, or hell, sub 1000 dollar machines are not suitable for off the shelf games.
Nethack.
They stopped selling them in the US because they ran out of NTSC kits with the NTSC discs.
The UK tax issue has nothing to do with it and besides the courts there eventually ruled it wasn't a computer even with the PAL Yabasic disc included.
They did drop the price of the kit to $99 later on in it's life and the HD is 40GB not 30 and the kit includes a network adapter. Kit owners were the first PS2 owners to have NA's. I know of several kit owners who played THPS3 with their kits before the official rollout of the NA later that year.
I've got a kit too, and you can compile anything you want, no guarantees of it working, of course. Quite a bit will compile with minimal effort
OpenGL based apps were always slow, ("limited hardware acceleration" in Mesa) noeGNUd was unplayable
On Linux for Playstation 2 it's /usr/games/fortune. :-)
I use mine as a desktop too, but you already knew that. :-)
Well worth the money
And I was expecting some PS3 news like this from Sony. Us PS2 Linux "desktop users" served as the test bed. I'd lay odds that the higher ups at Sony knew pretty darn quick that there were non-devs using kits as PC's without much major trouble and having lots of fun doing it.
Define "much"
Is reading/posting to slashdot much?
Chatting on freenode with X-chat
Using Gaim or Abiword?
Playing Nethack?
Getting pictures off a SD card with a reader and editing them in the GIMP?
Listening to MP3's?
I'm going to say that in all likelyhood it will be a full featured Linux distro. The one for PS2 is, intended for developer use, but it has X, several windowing environments, etc.
Nothing stopping sony from putting a section in the PS3 HDD manual about LInux, what it is, what it can do, etc and then putting a link to a "playstation3-linux.com" website to learn more. They could put a whole Linux for Beginners section in there. The PSP is a pretty complex little device and it's manual is BIG.
I'd lay odds that Linux on the PS3 would boot right into a nice window manager, perhaps KDE3 or XFCE.
Commercials for the HDD could easily be done and not mention Linux at all. HDD for PS3 lets you browse the web, chat, read e-mail, word process and run many free applications." Or they could include a text blurb and Tux image: Powered by Linux for PS3.
Exactly, it gets peoples (non-geeks) attention when I tell them I browse the web, read my e-mail do IM, etc on my PS2.
Actually the C64 was originally invisioned as a games console. It evolved into a computer during development.
actually, I have printed things out via the USB ports on one of my PS2's, I've got a Linux kit. :-)
The USB ports on my gaming PS2 are used for keyboard/mouse and a headset.