Linux on PS3.

[drag]

Looks like Sony will be offering a Linux OS for the Playstation 3 with a add-on harddrive.

Asked why they don't give a harddrive by default, they said that any default harddrive aviable right now won't be big enough.

more information avaible at:
http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/06/09/news_6127219.html

Looks promising if Sony doesn't manage to f-up it.

The Sony will have it's own kernel and will run Linux, or any other compatable OS, or multiple OSes, on that low-level system. Apparently.

I wonder if Nvidia will supply Sony with Linux drivers for the GPU....

 

[P0ldy]

Any hdd available now isn't big enough? Are they expecting games to be ~30GB each?

 

[drag]

No, they want you to use it like a computer. The harddrive wouldn't be just to save games on... so 30 gigs isn't that much when it comes to multimedia stuff.

Plus think about it a couple years from now. A 30 gig drive would be like what a 5 gig drive is now.

But of course it's also the old console thing were they only sell you one controller, and you have to buy the memory stick seperate, and the second controller seperate, etc etc.

 

[phisrow]

It'll be interesting to see how open this turns out to be. I like the idea of being able to run Linux; but Sony strikes me as the sort of outfit that might well restrict the utility of their platform. Will, for example, the binaries have to be signed by Sony in order to run? If what they say about Linux running as a program on top of the cell environment, which is likely to be pretty alien, it would be quite easy for them to force some kind of binary signature checking, and Sony seems like the sort of company to do that.

Hopefully, though, it'll end up being a cheap Cell machine. That, I would like.