Playstation 3 hard disk to run Linux

[Rewired]

SONY COMPUTER Entertainment boss Ken Kutaragi has suggested the upcoming Playstation 3 will come equipped with a hard disk. And the hard disk may come with Linux pre-installed.

"We're positioning the PS3 as a supercomputer", he says, "But people won't recognize it as a computer unless we call it a computer, so we're going to run an OS on it. In fact, the Cell can run multiple OSes. In order to run the OSes, we need a hard disk. So in order to declare that the PS3 is a computer, I think we'll have [the hard disk] preinstalled with Linux as a bonus.
Source: The Inquirer (http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=23878)

[drasnor]

One word:

AWESOME!!!

-drasnor :fold:

[Rewired]

One word:

AWESOME!!!

-drasnor :fold:
Yeah man; totally. The last line of this article (http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=23878) cracked me up.

"The Xbox 360 is expected to ship with a 20GB hard drive as standard. It is not expected to be running Linux."

[drasnor]

Just imagine the Linux market penetration after this. Everyone with a PS3 counts as a Linux user. Maybe this'll be incentive for developers to get Linux ready to be a real desktop OS.

Before I get flamed for that last statement, here's why I disagree that Linux is ready to be a major player vs Windows:
Migration from OSS to ALSA isn't complete. Latest final build of ALSA has problems with many soundcards (crashing). User must compile beta ALSA implementations for working sound.
Configuring X (the GUI) requires a text-editor. No equivalent for the Windows "Display" control panel exists.
Actually, most any configuration on Linux requires Googling and a text editor. This is a major shortcoming.

To put it bluntly, Linux is like the rainforests, it's very beautiful and necessary to our survival but if you change anything it dies.

-drasnor :fold:

[Jengo]

thats sweet! just imagine! everyone can have a super linux PC!! and now there excuse for not migrating cant be "it cant play games" cause you wont need it to! the PS3 will do it for you!

[Nosferatu]

I've been a long time linux user but recently i'm starting to realize linux won't get anywhere in the mainstream desktop market if they don't dumb things down A LOT. OS X does a fine job of just that, it's a shame they [Apple] don't have more of the market.

[RWB]

I think this is awsome, in fact.... I think I'll start working on getting linux installed on my main system to learn it a bit. :D

[Gargoyle]

Oh hell yeah. This might mean I get rid of my livingroom computer, and play all my media files off the Playstation :D

[TheBaron]

I'm almost positive that you're making assumptions as to what Linux means in this case, when you shouldn't be.

it'll be like a Linux-based front-end or something

[Gargoyle]

In the article, the guy mentions consumer OSes like Lindows, Windows, and OSX. I think that means they're at least considering the idea of being able to use the console as a computer. We'll see what actually gets realeased, though.