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A Sony Camera Running Linux

Posted by kdawson on Tue Jan 13, 2009 01:28 PM
from the answer-is-yes dept.
Sony Hardware Hacking Software Linux
jonr writes "At the recently concluded Consumer Electronics Show, Sony presented the new camera from its Cyber-shot product line. The DSC-G3 comes with a Zeiss lens with 4x zoom, a large 3.5" touch display, and 4GB of internal memory. Most interesting is the camera's software that includes, among other things, face and scene recognition, based on Busybox and Kernel 2.6.11 for the Access Linux Platform. The camera also has built-in Wi-Fi."
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Submission: Sony camera with Linux? by jonr (1130)
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A Sony Camera Running Linux 50 Comments More /

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  • Yeah but, (Score:5, Funny)

    by ehaggis (879721) on Tuesday January 13 2009, @01:29PM (#26436803) Homepage Journal
    ...Does it run...oh yeah...never mind.
  • First post thet mentions a rootkit.

  • But... (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Will it run *BSD?

  • My 5 year old Sony TV came with a GPL notice (Score:5, Informative)

    by YesIAmAScript (886271) on Tuesday January 13 2009, @01:30PM (#26436823)

    For busybox.

    So this isn't a new thing for Sony.

    There's even a URL at Sony's site for the code (of course). I forget what it was.

  • Year of the Linux camera? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 13 2009, @01:31PM (#26436831)

    better than nothing..

    • Re:Year of the Linux camera? (Score:5, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 13 2009, @02:00PM (#26437345)

      If everyone who buys this camera this year sets it down on top of a desk, it will be the year of Linux on the desktop!

      • Re:Year of the Linux camera? (Score:4, Interesting)

        by sdpuppy (898535) on Tuesday January 13 2009, @02:43PM (#26438085)
        I can just see what the little kids say now:

        "Daddy's camera's got a penguin on the screen when he starts it up!"

        Something like that happened a while ago when I got on on of those airplanes with a LCD on the back of each chair - they had to reboot the computer and the screen showed the boot sequence, including penguin. No, no no - this was the entertainment computer.

  • Price (Score:4, Informative)

    by CannonballHead (842625) on Tuesday January 13 2009, @01:33PM (#26436877)

    For those interested but too lazy to click a link:

    The DSC-G3 costs about $500 in the U.S.

  • Cool Link (Score:5, Funny)

    by olddotter (638430) on Tuesday January 13 2009, @01:33PM (#26436897) Homepage
    In the 90's a friend told me Linux would NEVER be used for embedded devices. Its fun to send him links like this. Fun in a very mischievous way.
    • He actually said Linux users would never have any luck IN BED, and would need to use devices to satisfy themselves.
  • I recently had some pictures taken at a local photographer's studio. All of the cameras in the studio had Wi-Fi. Once the pictures were taken, we were able to view them in another room immediately.

  • But can it run Vista? (Score:5, Funny)

    by gapagos (1264716) on Tuesday January 13 2009, @01:38PM (#26436987) Homepage

    But can it run Vista?

  • Wi-Fi cameras (Score:3, Insightful)

    by crow (16139) on Tuesday January 13 2009, @01:43PM (#26437069) Homepage Journal

    Remember the story about Amtrak security forcing someone to delete the photos they had taken? With the preponderance of hot spots and more and more cameras supporting Wi-Fi, this would mean that the concept of deleting photos may soon be an anachronism (and none too soon).

    • Remember the story about Amtrak security forcing someone to delete the photos they had taken? With the preponderance of hot spots and more and more cameras supporting Wi-Fi, this would mean that the concept of deleting photos may soon be an anachronism (and none too soon).

      Is there any reason why you couldn't undelete them afterwards and render it an anachronism without Wi-Fi? Most of those data cards use FAT as I recall and file undelete operations are fairly trivial with that filesystem.

    • Remember the story about Amtrak security forcing someone to delete the photos they had taken? With the preponderance of hot spots and more and more cameras supporting Wi-Fi, this would mean that the concept of deleting photos may soon be an anachronism (and none too soon).

      That's a double edged sword.

      "Erm... I can't undelete it, it's already been put on the Internet and stored in three separate geographical locations over which you have no jurisdiction" may work with a security guard or it may wind up escalating the conflict.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by PPH (736903)

        Not really. You just say "Yessir!" and delete the local copy.
        If they continue to pressure you, you just say, "Well, I hit the 'Delete' button. What more you you want?"

    • It gets better. I ran across a service for my Blackberry called Qik that lets you stream video live from the phone, and saves the video to the site straight away.

      So, for example, if someone who had a phone with Qik was taping the BART shooting or something equally embarrassing to $powerful_group, even if security forced you to delete the video and took the phone, the video's already out there.

  • The last decade heralded the smart cellphone revolution. Cellphones with more and more features including camera, bluetooth, wireless, PDA yada yada.

    I think what we are witnessing here is the beginning of the camera revolution. Smart cameras with wireless capabilities. Soon we shall see direct integration with social networks, ability to communicate over Skype etc. Innovation from the other end of the spectrum.

    • Wouldn't it be smarter to just merge phones with cameras completely? We have mobiles with cameras in them and cameras the size of mobiles that are now being equipped with wireless networking capabilities.

      Seems a small step to me.

  • Will it support Linux client access? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by erroneus (253617) on Tuesday January 13 2009, @01:47PM (#26437141) Homepage

    I have been watching this happen over and over and over again. Companies developing their products to use Linux but turn around and not support Linux client access. I had stupidly picked up a wireless networked video camera that was known to run Linux on the inside and made a very stupid assumption that Linux client access would therefore be a no-brainer. WRONG! It was Windows only for client access... not even Mac could access it. That was the beginning of the eye-openers for me. It is sad and annoying... they take from the community and then don't give back.

    Personally, I just don't buy anything that has the Sony label on it any longer. Not Sony-BMG music, not Sony movies, not Sony games, not Sony cameras, not Sony TVs, not Sony anything else. Sony has burned this customer too many times for me to have any faith in them and so far, I see little changes in their behavior. Their computers are complete crap too, by the way. Sony once had astounding popularity as a name brand, but they have burned more bridges than my own to be sure. I know at least 50% of Japan is anti-Sony. It is amazing that they are still humming along as well as they are.

    • I have been watching this happen over and over and over again. Companies developing their products to use Linux but turn around and not support Linux client access. I had stupidly picked up a wireless networked video camera that was known to run Linux on the inside and made a very stupid assumption that Linux client access would therefore be a no-brainer. WRONG! It was Windows only for client access... not even Mac could access it.

      Similar experience here. My computer uses capacitors made by Johanson Dielectrics, so I carefully picked a GPS that also uses capacitors from Johanson Dielectrics, figuring that meant they would work together, but the damned thing would not work with my computer.

  • I hope developments like these can help SONY. In my opinion, SAMSUNG has of late, been chipping away at SONY's lunch [and market share] for a while now with interesting products on the home entertainment front.

    BusinessWeek even ran a story [businessweek.com] for SONY at SAMSUNG.

    Where did SONY go wrong?

    • Sony got arrogant and assumed what ever they'd make, people would eat up. They felt they didn't have to listen to consumers or live in reality. And I say that as someone with a plethora of Sony products in my house, and a Sony VISA in my wallet. Sony is still a very good company, but they lost sight of what once made them a great company.

  • There are several Canon cameras that allow 3rd-party open-source firmware.

    If this can be flashed then it's worth a look-see.

  • Imagine... (Score:5, Funny)

    by mustafap (452510) on Tuesday January 13 2009, @03:30PM (#26438831)
    a Beowulf cluster of these. Actually I don't need to; I live in surveillance UK :o)

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by pato101 (851725)
      My DSC-W90 seems to be running Linux as well(http://www.sony.net/Products/Linux/Download/DSC-W90.html). And from "power on" to "ready to snap" takes about a second.

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