Linux and the Coming Consoles 73
eldavojohn writes "Despite reports from the CEO that the PS3 will ship with Linux, LinuxDevices is now saying that it won't. Also, despite a rumor that the Wii will have Linux, the originator of the rumor has revealed himself to be a prankster. This won't stop you from putting Yellow Dog on the PS3 or running WiiLi, a live Linux CD for the Wii."
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"Sony's PlayStation 3 (PS3), due this month, will not ship with Linux pre-installed, as suggested in March by CEO Ken Kuturagi. However, TerraSoft CEO Kai Staats says his company's Yellow Dog Linux is installable by "anybody who knows how to use a keyboard, mouse, and browser," according to an interview in the Coloradoan."
So you foe me bacause you can't read?
What practical things have people done... (Score:3, Interesting)
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Re:What practical things have people done... (Score:5, Insightful)
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If so, that's a pretty bizarre version of "fun" in my opinion. Do the same people also think that doing their taxes is "fun"?
Re:What practical things have people done... (Score:5, Funny)
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Linux on a console is a game - and a better game than any of the prepackaged games people are selling.
But more than that - yes, practical things will be done if the PS3 runs Linux. I want a computer in my living room, and the choi
Re:What practical things have people done... (Score:5, Interesting)
I think a modified Xbox 1 would be your cheapest route, but a custom built MythTV box would be the most versatile... none of these options would be as expensive as a PS3 though, For the Price tag the PS3 could be pretty limited considering it's lack of system memory, and the fact that it only supports expensive 2.5" hard drives. Though I suppose the built in bluetooth and blu-ray would be handy... though not $500-$600 handy IMO.
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Hardware wise Sony seems to be pretty lenient on what they will allow compared to past and present consoles by them and everyone else (no more sticking with j
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Anyway, good point. Another thing they are good for is compute nodes: For the price, they have a lot of CPU/GPU processing power, so running distributed programs on them isn't a bad idea. Especially if it is during 'down-time' when you wouldn't be playing games anyway.
Not that I'd want to build a cluster out of them: You could probably build something better for about the same amount of money by picking something designed for what you want to
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The primary example I can think of, off the top of my head, is the growing movement to turn the original XBox into a headless linux server. When you think about it, the ability to put a decently large hard drive in a relatively inexpensive box that already includes networking hardware...
It's an option for people like me who don't have a lot of money, but still like to play with home networking. It's certainly cheaper than getting actual server equipment.
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There is a real difference between server hardware and workstation hardware. If you don't require real server equipment, then I can't think of any positive reason to choose a console over a PC that would outweigh all of the drawbacks.
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All else being equal, yes it's cheaper and easier to build your own PC to handle it. But there are the occasional situations where it's cheaper to use the console (i.e. it's sitting around collecting dust) than to use a real PC (i.e. those parts would have to be purchased new).
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People have gotten Linux installed on a DS and VNC client as well. There are even some utility apps like email and web browsers (not the official opera kind) floating around.
However, because of the DS's limited ram many things are just limited in what you can do.
here [lifehacker.com] is a screen shot of the DS VNC in action.
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I also tinker with cryptology I wonder how fast it would be making smart rainbow tables or some other thing that embarrasses people who use shitty encryption.
I think most kids should have a computer but more have game consoles, wouldn't it great after the investment of a USB mouse & keyboard all they needed was a *free* optical disk and they cou
Sony not gonna let you do homebrew--Deal with it! (Score:2)
Sony are control freaks. They are not going to let you do homebrew games on the PS3. Their systems are ALWAYS locked down tight. If you want to see the kind of "Linux" you'll get on the PS3, look no further than the "Linux" they offered [linuxdevcenter.com] on the PS2. It will be just as worthless.
-Eric
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PS2 Cluster (Score:2)
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I'm looking forward to experimenting with the Cell processor. A workstation with the same specs would be worth much more than the $600, though it would need a lot more memory. Of course, if you regard it as a console (=appliance), the idea of Linux on it is a little funny. To me it looks more like a workstation, with much more processing power than most x86 machines you can buy these days.
Drivers? (Score:2)
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Actually... (Score:4, Interesting)
<minirant>I will be too busy playing fucking games on it to want to do the above. For all the bitchin on
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RPGs/strategy: Zelda, Marvel: UA
FPS: Far Cry, Red Steel, Splinter Cell, CoD 3
Flight: Blazing Angels
Racing: NFS: Carbon (not a racing fan, so I don't know if this one is actually quality but it's a name franchise)
Platformers: Metal Slug, Rayman
Not to mention the oddball social and party games like WarioWare, Elebits, Monkey Ball and the Wii specific tit
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Some of us will not be too busy playing fucking games ('though that particular kind sound kinda fun) since I get bored of the games after about 4 hours of gameplay. OTOH, I have a fair amount (20+ years) of embedded systems progamming experience; and Linux on a Cell chip will keep me en
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Linux *DOES* impact my buying decision. (Score:1, Interesting)
I do this for 3 reasons.
Only One Console (Score:2)
At the very least once can expect a ps3 media center like the xbox.
WII linux seems to have been a rumor a
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For anybody reading the sites (Score:1, Interesting)
If you actually go to the WiiLi site, apparently some college doofus thinks he's going to make be able to make live Linux CDs for the Wii with:
* Absolutely no prior knowledge of the other console linuxes to date (how they work, how they boot, and the difficulties with them)
* No actual knowledge of the Wii more than what's out there
So in other words, he lacks two fundamental things:
* No knowledge of how the hardware works, so he probably won'
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I guess what pisses me off the most about this, is this is obviously a kid who is giving false hope to anyone hoping to get a linux on Wii. By the time any real projects are up, he'll be at the top of google's list, and anyone with interest will think that there's no real progress being made.
So he's taking interest and attention away from any real potential linux projects, and that fucking sucks.
And with that I'm done fuming.
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(For those that still don't get the joke, it's a linux distribution called "Willy", that happens to run on the Wii)
says who? (Score:2, Interesting)
Say goodbye to WiiLi... (Score:2, Funny)
Please DO NOT Digg/Slashdot this server, I'm just setting it up and is not ready for high load!
Since their computers will be melting into slag fairly quickly, we may not be running Linux on the Wii after all.
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Obligatory... (Score:2, Funny)
I wouldn't expect to run WiiLi anytime soon (Score:2)
PS3 very supportive (Score:1)
So not only wi
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Frakking SoG, I still run my kit using NTSC (Xgsx fixed for 640x448 rather than the default 610x404 at least)
For my sake I consider the $200 I paid for the kit, money well spent.
I personally thought the YDL decision was pretty obvious after some thinking. They used Red Hat for the PS2, why not use Fedora on the PS3 with a distro that already has PPC support.
They've got a package list up on the YDL website now so you could check to see if there are any accelera
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Whats most notable is that (acording to something I saw), the PS3 linux kit isnt including any notable media players (although I am sure that wont last long once someone checks PS3 fixes into the XMMS or FFMPEG tree
NVidia graphics (Score:1)
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Rootkit curiousity... (Score:1)
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I don't think there's a SUSE with Cell support.