Linux on PS3

I came across the Official Linux for PS3, apparently supported by Sony. Have you guys heard about it? Is it more than a desktop environment for the PS3 or does it offer "hacking" abilitites, such as region free Blu-Ray?

 

http://www.terrasoftsolutions.com/products/ydl/

 

Yellow Dog isnt that great, its not really supported by Sony. Ubuntu works on the PS3 quite well. I dont think theres much in the way of hacking, or that Ive read about anyway. I do know the bluray player works in the newest Ubuntu though, which is nice

 

it might be a good start for programming CELL implementation of logic.

Some game dev. companies using linux as well for some activities
http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?p=1025642#post1025642

This approach has not so much common as for SONY SDK development but there are a lot of the activities around hardware as IBM BladeCenter QS20. Many universities have it and so on. For example
http://tu-dresden.de/die_tu_dresden/zentrale_einrichtungen/zih/forschung/architektur_und_leistungsanalyse_von_hochleistungsrechnern/cell/

Good point to start is - http://www.bsc.es/projects/deepcomputing/linuxoncell/

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/forums/forum.jspa?forumID=739

I would recommend to try Fedora Core 7 and so on.

It (ps3 + linux)will be not full replacement for desktop box, it mostly nuts cracker for a calculations.

 

I'll look for that quote, someone told me that.

Howabout programs like VLC? Wouldn't one be able to play region free BD's on any PS3 with any distro of Linux? VLC works with any Linux distro, right?

 

VLC works. I just dont know what type of bluray support they have.

 

I think the newer models use notably less. Even then, it wasnt THAT power hungry

 

the Ps3 is power-hungry for a console, but not so for a PC equivelant

 

From http://www.ps3-hacks.com/forums/about1442.html ;

 

The old Ubuntu was much slower then the latest Ive still never gotten the impression from their work on YDL or from Sony even that they (Sony) truely support and put effort into it

 

I'd think it's weird to, since opening up that door to open source programs is endless opportunities for piracy, and weirder still that Sony is behind it, but installing Linux on, say, 8 PS3's and using them in a cluster is very interesting.

http://www.terrasoftsolutions.com/store/index.php?submit=software&submitimg[hardware][solutions]=1

 

I never saw Linux on the PS2 or PS3 as anything more than a fanboy bullet point. Sony doesn't really gain or lose anything from the lip-service support that they've provided, and it's not as if someone with the Linux kit can provide software that competes with the mainstream game releases. Having Linux as a capability is just one more thing that Sony can claim their competitors don't have, even though it arguably doesn't add anything to the gaming experience.

 

I think it's very useful, I mean, you can buy PS3 with YD Linux preinstalled, and while YDL (compared to Ubuntu) supposedly isn't that great with emulators it still means a world of possibilities. I have Linux on my Xbox and if it wasn't so damn easy to install emulators on the Xbox without a "proper" OS I'd pack it with games, emulators, and media players. It also supports 1280x720 so basically everything I need I could have on Xbox. I could also have it on PS3, although (and I'm no expert here) people say it [Linux] can't access the GPU, so it's pretty restricted so far compared to it's potential.

 

And, might I add, everything it plays is completely free from any DRM and other bullcrap that is only meant to limit my entertainment capabilities, although PS3 is said to support DivX in future updates but to be honest, it's too little, too late. And it probably will only be available in-game as opposed to actually playing dl'ed movies.

 

PS3 already supports DivX and Xvid. Plays whatever you want. Ive been watching downloaded movies on it for the past week or so. And Ive never seen a PS3 preloaded with YDL. Ubuntu has really improved with the latest version

 

Someone obviously has little experience with window managers if they think Enlightenment is as nice as OS X. It was chosen because it's not a full desktop environment and has lower processor and memory requirements.

As has been said, Linux is nothing more than a geeky showoff point. If you're doing a very specific type of number crunching it can make for a nice cluster, but for the average home user there's no point. Even a basic PC is going to perform a lot better.

If you want to play Divx files, grab a modded Xbox or if you don't want to bother with that just snag a retail Xbox 360 and go to town. Of course if you're digitizing your media collection these days there's zero reason to bother with Divx when H.264/MP4 is available and the standard is supported by both the Xbox 360 and PS3. Since it's a much more efficient codec, H.264/MP4 gives you *much* better quality in the same space as a Divx file.

-hl718

 

DivX works on the PS3 dammit

Oh, and Linux gurus got RSX support (before the last firmware update anyway), and had a basic driver

 

If Sony would not do otheros installed for PS3 - no one would be able to install any Linux on ps3.Otheros does exist.
Main reason to have linux on PS3 - playing around CELL processor and its programming for better understandings. It might be not only wish of Sony but someone from the team developed CELL - IBM etc. IBM is doing direct money out of Linux on CELL.

Why people try to see deeper into Linux - I would say that one of the reason is history and Linux for ps2

 

Sony have always provided the ability for programmers to play around with their hardware. The net yaroze & the ps2 linux kit were pretty expensive & now with the ps3 you can get it for free.

Sony like linux, they use it themselves.