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Hardware

Sony Annouces Linux PS2 Port for US 308

Posted by CmdrTaco from the get-em-while-they're-hot dept.
krismon writes "Sony has announced that it is gonna release the Linux port(old Slashdot article) for the Playstation 2 in the US, after selling out SUPER fast in japan." I saw this running, it's pretty impressive.
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Sony Annouces Linux PS2 Port for US More

Sony Annouces Linux PS2 Port for US

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  • Sweet, I wonder if i can talk my prof into using t hem for my OS class this winter?

    www.cs.uchicago.edu

  • But do you have to sign over your soul in blood to Sony??? They scare me.

    ** Disclamer: I am a disgruntled Dreamcast owner.
  • I finally have a reason to buy a PS2... ::waits for external HDD::

  • So what? (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I can't swap the OS and just play games using the original PSOS. Besides, TVs don't have the nice resolution that a normal monitor has. Running X at 640x480 on a 50 inch TV does nothing for me.
    • I can't swap the OS and just play games using the original PSOS. Besides, TVs don't have the nice resolution that a normal monitor has. Running X at 640x480 on a 50 inch TV does nothing for me.

      Yes, perhaps, but what if you network it and get yourself a network mp3 player controlled by a PS2 remote? (And you can pipe DVD video through DeCSS and stream it across your home network, I bet...) I know I wouldn't mind having an extra Linux box. And it's a good way to learn to code on a new platform.

    • Re:So what? (Score:3, Informative)

      by zeno_2 ( 518291 )
      Ya.. if you knew anything about this you would know that it comes with a cable that plugs into a vga monitor, so if want yer high resolution, its comes in the box. Zeno
  • ...they had to go through the code and erase all changelog comments that would infringe on the DMCA.

  • Important Notes Re: Linux PS2 (Score:4, Troll)

    by Zach` ( 71927 ) on Monday October 22, 2001 @11:07PM (#2463956)
    > Why on Earth would I want to run Linux on my PS2?

    Just off the top of my head, I would say there is a lot you can do. eg, many open source linux games can now be ported to the PS much more easily since all the neccesary linux libs etc will be available.

    Also off the top of my head: With just linux, a framebuffer driver for the PS, an opendivx codec and a bit of work, it shouldn't be too hard to get a bootable linux based cd whose sole purpose is to play back the divx thats also recorded to the cd. In other words, an alternative to DVD that plays on any PS and is easily copied and distributed. This would be ideal for people wanting to send copies of their summer party video to their friends, none of whom own a pc, but all who have playstations.

    When someone says that linux runs on the PS, don't automatically think that they are talking about a complete GNU/Linux system together with all the usual shells and servers etc. That will probably not be the case. I expect a bootable linux CD could be set up to go straight into a game from init. The user may not even know they were running linux at all.

    This could be the start of lots of free-software games releases ported to the PS.
    • could you run all of those cool arcade emultors on this linux port? optimized versions?
    • This would be ideal for people wanting to send copies of their summer party video to their friends, none of whom own a pc, but all who have playstations.

      Er, right...because far more people have PlaySation 2 consoles than PC's, and none of them have VCR's so you couldn't dub that summer party video to tape.

      I'm nitpicking, and yeah it's a cool hack just like NetBSD or Linux was for the Dreamcast. Sure, people got some emulators and mp3 players going on that console, but that's all. Lots of free-software games for the PS2? I'll remain skeptical...everything I've read indicates that the system is a bitch to program for anyway.

      • Er, right...because far more people have PlaySation 2 consoles than PC's, and none of them have VCR's so you couldn't dub that summer party video to tape.

        The purpose, in my mind, wouldn't be because you couldn't just use videotape, but because a CD that runs on PS2 is cool. Novel.

        With a little work, you could no doubt make a single CD that works on a PS2, or Windows and Mac. What the CD presents on each platform might be different.

        [This is assumption on my part. I know when I put a PS1 disk in my Mac, I see files. Presumably true on Windows. Also presumably true of PS2 disks. Therefore, couldn't you just put an Autorun.inf file on that disk along with exe files that a PS2 would just ignore?]

        It's also novel to make christmas cards on square business card CD's, which play on Mac or Windows, and give them to family. The point is that most family members don't get christmas cards on CD's. Let alone on oddball sized CD's. It's the novelty which makes it cool. This becomes one cool topic of conversation at a family get together. Extending this concept to also play on PS2 seems logical.

        On Mac and Windows, the disk might launch one of KAI Power Show, or Macromedia Director player, or just a web page in the browser. On PS2 it would probably have to do something different.

    • Re:Important Notes Re: Linux PS2 (Score:5, Insightful)

      by grammar nazi ( 197303 ) on Monday October 22, 2001 @11:21PM (#2464028) Journal
      You couldn't be any farther from the truth. The *actual* reason that Sony has announced a Linux Release for the PS2 is because of pressure from the XBox.

      According to popular rumor, the "HomeStation" is Microsoft's 2nd generation XBox. This will provide television recording, internet surfing, games, kitchen sink, etc. How can the poor little PS2 and its successors keep up with that?

      How?

      By using Open Source software. Currently, the PS2 running Linux has far more applications than the HomeStation (since the HomeStation is still in Development). All Sony has to do is stay ahead of Microsoft.

      If Microsoft runs a native windows type OS or something on their HomeStation and markets it as a computer, then we have anti-trust laws being broke even more than now. Microsoft can't get away with owning the hardware and the software.

      • Microsoft can't get away with owning the hardware and the software.

        Better send the police to break up Apple and Sun, they make hardware and software and in the case of Sun have a very large percentage of the market.

        • your dumb.....MS owns the consumer market in software...sun does not....true, MS would not be breaking any laws at first, however, they will market the hell out of the Xcrap and soon own the console market (in their plans). this then would put them in a nice situation to take the DVD market and the computer market and the PVR market....soon MS will start to make TVs with the home station in the TV and then they will own the TV market...then on to the kitchen appliances with universal PnP..............

        • Re:Important Notes Re: Linux PS2 (Score:4, Informative)

          by grammar nazi ( 197303 ) on Tuesday October 23, 2001 @12:14AM (#2464210) Journal
          break up Apple and Sun, they make hardware and software

          Owning the hardware and software doesn't break the antitrust laws. Using the marketshare from one in order to leverage into the other *does* break the antitrust laws.

          The U.S. Antitrust laws don't make it illegal to have a monopoly in the USA. They illegalize a small subset of practices which have a large impact on consumers and competitors.

        • Back in the late 1980's Apple was afraid of anti-trust suit because the had hardware, OS, and at that time the most popular "Office" suite for their platform.

          They spun off Claris and gave Claris the office suite. It had been called AppleWorks, then ClarisWorks.

          Eventually after MS gained dominance in the Word processor market on the Mac, Apple bought Claris back, and rename the product back to Appleworks.
      • Are you sure that's the reason?

        I thought it was so that Sony could claim the PS2 is a 'real' computer to get around the European Union's import tax on game consoles?

        I could be wrong though...
      • ...that you aren't going to back that up. I mean, right now you're basically in the realm of supposition.

        Was the 'HomeStation' rumor announced before the original PS2 Linux kit? I'm pretty sure it wasn't.
    • OY! That's my comment, you thief!! :-)

      (Go to here [slashdot.org] and search for MartinG)

    • Right, let's get this straight, from what I've heard it is a fairly complete linux system. It's basically a port of an oldish redhat distro. It installs on the hard disk that comes with the kit (40GB) so has a reasonable /tmp, which it needs, don't forget that this is a machine with only 32mb or ram. Swap city. Having said that it apparently runs pretty well and is more than capable of running your browser (also included in the kit is a broadband adaptor), word processor etc. Resolution is limited to 800x600 though.

      Sony have a page with a couple of screenshots and a features list here [scea.com]

      Which brings us to why Sony are doing it. Yes they have got a touch of microsoft envy, they like the idea of having one unit which does DVD, games, web, interactive content and office stuff sat under your telly that is made by them. But, this is open source not m$ so don't get too upset. More than that though Sony most likely want to encourage the return of the bedroom game coder.

      Think about it, they've done this before with the netYarouze project (ps one that you could connect to your pc and download code to) and they're providing the system manuals with the linux kit. Forget porting linux games, this is a games console! There's no way you'll get decent performance through mesa et al on ps2, the drivers won't be optimised for it, don't forget, it's not a PC (remember 32mb main ram, 4mb VRAM!). You're supposed to be adventurous, learn how the ps2 works, see if all those developers are right about it being hard to code for, take up the challenge.

      If you do it right ps2 is an awesome machine, you just have to remember what your target platform is (hint dynamic texture management). Sony are giving people the opportunity to get back to the good old days and make games at home, go on, you know you want to!
  • What driver support is included for the firewire ports on the ps2? Will it be released for standard distros?
    rrdejay
    post count != pensu size

  • OS Wars on the Console? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Whyte Wolf ( 149388 ) on Monday October 22, 2001 @11:07PM (#2463962) Homepage
    Does this mean that it'll move the OS Wars (Linux vs Windows) to gaming consoles?

    Then again, looking at the menu system for the Xbox, I can honestly say I'd prefer windows to what MS is doing on their console system....

    Wonder if Sony's Linux port will have wacky interface options?

  • Maelstrom on my tv, that's gotta be interesting. Just hope the penguins don't eat my nachos!

    -Shade
  • NO! I CAN'T imagine a Beowulf cluster of these...

    I'm kinda curious what kind of I/O score the PS2 might be able to manage. While the power requirements might be kinda steep, it's a very small and *very* stackable mini server platform.

    Of course, don't expect it anytime soon. The HD, modem, and broadband adapter peripherals have all been delayed until Spring.
    • ...but I think the IEEE1394 (that's FireWire, or iLink if you're Sony) hubs are out now. I do wonder if the iLink hardware is accessible under Linux on the PS2. 400 Mbps should roll all over the broadband adapter, no?
  • This will be a fun and cheap method for learning the MIPS architecture, I can only hope linux is also ported to the Gamecube so I can do the same for PPC ;-)
    • Good luck. Nintendo has no plans of making Game Cube anything other than a game machine, and took several stepa to ensure it.
    • Well I've had the ... um .. "pleasure" .. of trying to get a MIPS single board computer up and running with x-windows (for a tradeshow demo) and I'll tell you, it's not fun. The Linux kernel on MIPS is pretty solid these days, but the application-level support reminds me of Linux in '94. It was a very painful experience (though for the record I did get it up and running and it looked great, provided nobody touched the mouse :).

      But hey, the more coders who play around with the MIPS port, the better it will get, right? Go for it! :)

      - j

  • For aspiring developers (Score:2, Informative)

    by Zach` ( 71927 )
    How the PS2 works - this is an awesome source... very informative, yet easy-to-read.

    http://www.howstuffworks.com/ps2.htm

  • it makes perfect economic sense (Score:5, Insightful)

    by alewando ( 854 ) on Monday October 22, 2001 @11:12PM (#2463987)
    While Sony is really earns its bread in the liscensing market rather than the hardware market, it is still important for them to put units in consumers' homes, because that is the only way to build a userbase for PS2 games.

    What is the additional cost for releasing a linux-enabled PS2 machine? Not terribly much. It's the sort of thing linux enthusiasts might release on their own in a few months, given a chance. By putting in this marginal amount of effort, Sony gets both a more valuable commodity and some brownie points among linux enthusiasts.

    I honestly can't see a single downside for them. The remarkable point is not that the PS2 is capable of this but rather that Sony actually had the foresight to act upon it. That's the hallmark of a nimble corporation and speaks loads for their future.

    Of course, Sony is also in bed with the RIAA and the dvd cca, so anyone who buys a PS2 is going to hell in my book, but that's your choice.
    • True, even though Sony will probably have to bundle a MPEG-2 DVD Decoder that's licenced, along with a audio player.

      Down side is that you can't play those screwed up CD's.

      Hopefully, they'll bundel GCC with it too, so we can put our own stuff on it.
      • They will. The Japanese site used to have screenshots of gcc compiling something in an X-term.

        Even if they don't just download the source to gcc, cross-compile it for MIPS, make an RPM out of it, and then upload it to Freshmeat for everyone :).

        I've never cross-compiled anything before (all my stuff is either x86 or PICMicro), but somewhere on my hard drive here I've got the cross-comp tools from runix...
    • Thats actually a bad idea because it also had a pretty good probability of selling a large number of systems to people that never plan on buying software. Considering software licences is the only way sony makes money on this (they lose money on the hardware) they don't want to cause this necessarily.
    • I think the issue here is not running linux on a console per say but more of using a ps2 for things like crunching spreadsheets and wordprocessing in these difficult economic times. Japan got hit hard during this recession. Why buy an expensive, slow, and soon to be pay per month pc, when you can do work and internet browsing from a console. The machine is very powerfull and should have more uses then just for blowing up things in video games.

      I wonder if its because of the integrated spreadsheet and word processor thats really driving the sales of linux on ps2.

  • Its a cool hack but does it have a point?
    AFIK the thing does not have a net connection shiped with it so you can not get any networking. Is there a printer port? Can you plug in a cdrom drive or a fd0/L120 device?
    Sure you can use a spread sheet with it but what do you do with it after its created. Where can you save, print, send it?
    I would like to see something like this with a distro amied at newbies. With interactive lessons on how to use all of the apps so that it becomes a "learn linux on your PS2" thing that allows us to capture the newbies before they get hooked on windows.
    But unless this can escape the gravity of a cool novilty or hack that will not happen.
    • While I agree that the PS2 isn't going to be a general-purpose computing platform in the same sense that your desktop machine is, please keep in mind that consumer electronics/entertainment hardware quite likely represents the next battleground for "mindshare".

      Even if the initial implementations are kind of silly, I'm really pleased to see open source software reaching the embedded device market. It becomes a lot harder, for example, to force a completely one-sided "digital rights management" scheme on consumers when there exists more than one viable platform choice for the consumer.

    • Re:What is the point? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Chakat ( 320875 ) on Monday October 22, 2001 @11:45PM (#2464117) Homepage
      Its a cool hack but does it have a point?

      i'll give you one word for the best reason for this port. Mozilla. By porting Linux to the PS2, a port of Mozilla becomes trivial, and Sony doesn't have to spend the mega bucks to create a web browser. You just have to create a skin which looks decent on a TVs limited resolution, maybe an image proxy which downsamples the pics so they're viewable on a TV.

      As for your question about expandablity, remember those USB ports. USB is fairly well supported on Linux, so pretty much any supported Linux device, such as storage controller, network card, input device, etc suddenly becomes a PS2 device.

    • AFIK the thing does not have a net connection shiped with it so you can not get any networking. Is there a printer port? Can you plug in a cdrom drive or a fd0/L120 device?

      Yeah, since the PS2 has USB ports on the front, it shouldn't be horrible to port any USB device driver to Linux/PS2. Printers, mice, keyboards, tablets, CD-RWs, digital cameras, ethernet adaptors, modems, speakers. Anything that is USB nowadays in theory could be made to work with Linux/PS2.

    • Re:What is the point? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by VFVTHUNTER ( 66253 ) on Tuesday October 23, 2001 @12:46AM (#2464314) Homepage
      The Japanese version ships with a combo hard-drive/10-100Mbit ethernet connection.

      The printer port is /dev/usb.

      Why plug in a cdrom drive? It's got a CD/DVD drive.

      We won't know what its uses are until we get them, now will we? Depends on how much 'puting power they have. With only 32MB of RAM, don't go expecting a whole lot.

      I will be buying one for the following reasons presently:

      Sony Playstation 2: $300

      Sony PS2 Linux Kit: probably $200

      The convenience of not having to get off the couch when I want to get some porn off the net: priceless.
    • Well, the PS2 already has a CD-ROM drive (duh), and it has USB and firewire ports on it, so you should be able to plug just about any modern PC perphrial into it, provided you've got drivers. There's also a Nice drive bay in back for extensions like Hard drives.
  • ... and even then, nobody will be able to agree on what distribution is best. :)
  • remember everyone complaining about their nvidia cards not being supported under X?

    wait, what kind of graphics card the the PS2 use?

    well, on the same note, if people are able to get linux running under the X-box (which is to come out pretty soon supposedly) then... well that would mean there's going to be drivers for the nvidia card out there too...
  • ...Now who is going to write drivers to allow programming via DualShock, or write drivers to allow the DVD-ROM to be accessed. Video drivers would be nice, too.

  • Makes sense (Score:4, Interesting)

    by HomeGroove ( 527053 ) on Monday October 22, 2001 @11:25PM (#2464045)
    Wouldn't this make sense for Sony to do? With the release of the HD/Ethernet port coming up (November?), it seems like this would be a great solution for the elusive set top box. And could this be a server farm [slashdot.org] solution right out of the box?

    It's also nice to see a company do this. While it would be fun to hack the Xbox, this will be a nice solution to those just getting their hands dirty with Linux (myself included...Mac OSX has whetted my appitite. Next stop, YellowDog).

    Kudos Sony!

  • Emulators (Score:2, Interesting)

    by secondsun ( 195377 )

    How hard would it be to port some emulators to this? I mean really, until FF 10 comes out classics may be the only good games you can find.

    (On a side note I think that this is really damn cool. Not that it is on the PS2 but that someone managed to sell LInux)

    Secondsun

    I can pirate DVD's if it keeps my children off porn sitez.

  • Why Ethernet? USB - USB networking (PC - PS2) (Score:5, Informative)

    by Mandelbrute ( 308591 ) on Monday October 22, 2001 @11:34PM (#2464076)
    The PS2 comes with two USB ports.

    Has anyone been able to get the PS2 under linux to talk to a another linux box via USB? Is the USB hardware on the playstation supported in sony's linux port?

    A couple of megabits a second is nothing to sneeze at, a lot of things could run full speed under X at 2Mb/s.

    The firewire port would give far better speeds, but every recent PC has USB.

    Currently I have a box with TV out which gets lugged into the living room occasionally to play movie files in various formats & xgalaga on the TV. Having a PS2 as an X-term would be a far more convenient (and cheaper) idea than a box with a GeForce with TV-out. Things that chew serious amounts of CPU (eg. DivX) could be run on the real box in another room and piped to the local display on the PS2. After a certain point the bandwidth of firewire would be desireable.

    • USB sucks for networking. It's designed for one-way data transfer, and bogs down if it gets much more sophisticated. Remember networking with serial cables on the mac, or null modem cables on the PC, that's why USB networking sucks, and hasn't been implemented.
    • While the PS2's CPU has only a mere 300MHz clock speed, it is not an Intel architechture CPU -- it is a MIPS Rx000 (sorry, can't remember which model straight off the top of my head) by SGI (originally). It can execute more instructions in parallell than an Intel CPU can, in fact, enough to be faster than the XBox's 733MHz CPU. That's the same reason an AMD AthlonXP 1800 at 1533MHz can beat a Pentium 4 2000 in all tests but Q3A (Q3A seems to be optimized for Intel over AMD). Performance matters, not numbers. The clock speed is really meaningless when comparing CPUs of different architectures. MIPS (millions of instructions per second) is a much more accurate measurement. So, DivX, DVD, or whatever wouldn't be a problem at all for the PS2, since it can handle HDTV resolution DVD decoding/scaling. It would be MUCH slower to send uncompressed video (24bits/pixel*1280columns*720rows*30fps=79MB/s) over a 100mbit/s network (12.5MB/s theoretical maximum without protocol overhead) than it would be for the PS2's CPU to decode it locally, since DivX video is usually around 500KB/s for transparent quality at 1440x720 (I know - I use DivX to compress my high-res 3D animations from Bryce et al when I'm low on hard drive space). Firewire is only 40MB/s, so this would still be insufficient for uncompressed consumer HDTV video.

  • But Why? But Why Not? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Jace of Fuse! ( 72042 ) on Monday October 22, 2001 @11:40PM (#2464103) Homepage
    Some are of course questioning WHY?

    With a keyboard, mouse, Hard Drive, and Ethernet/Modem adapter, SONY may have essentially created the next cheap home computer, and they'll be able to push this onto the market as such with the right marketing.

    You see- back in the days of the Commodore 64 a computer didn't have to have a completely dedicated setup for people. It was fine to have a computer just plugged into the TV for occassional gaming, BBS, and type-work.

    The Playstation 2 can perform all of the modern equvilants of these roles, and it doesn't even REALLY need Linux to do it, but why complain that it uses Linux?

    While I honestly DOUBT that Linux is going to be a major part of the Sony Playstation's acceptance as a general purpose low-cost computing device, I honestly do think it's a "Good Thing" for Linux. Think of the number of budding coders that could print their first "Hello World" on this thing? And while Microsoft may own the PC market right now they don't own EVERY market, at least, not yet, and there is room for a whole new level of personal computers. A market that hasn't been filled since the last of the Amiga 500's began to die off.

    Dreamcast could've had that market, but they ignored it. XBox could have that Market, but Microsoft won't play their cards right (I don't think). Nintendo doesn't want that market or they would've had it a long time ago.

    Sony. Linux. It bothers me, but I can see it happening.
    • You see- back in the days of the Commodore 64 a computer didn't have to have a completely dedicated setup for people. It was fine to have a computer just plugged into the TV for occassional gaming, BBS, and type-work.


      You forgot one thing:

      Back in those days you could go to Toys R Us and get the practically complete guide to programming the Commodore 64, including the 6510 assembly language, and the schematic just for the hell of it. Now THAT was cool, unlike these crappy-ass computers of today.

      I ain't buying a Linux powered PS2 until they give me the same thing.
    • With a keyboard, mouse, Hard Drive, and Ethernet/Modem adapter, SONY may have essentially created the next cheap home computer...

      Ok, lets break down the cost of this cheap computer...

      Playstation 2 - 299.99

      Hard Drive -199.99 (I am assuming, considering the shark drive is 119.99)

      Ethernet Adaptor - 59.99 (Also assuming, using retail price for a Dramcast One)

      Linux - 29.99 (??? No clue ???)

      Total Cost - 590

      So, for 590 you can get a computer that runs about the speed of a k62-233 doing anything but play games, when I could go to my locaL pc store and get a 700 or 800 MHZ machine (that can also play games) for less???? Yeah, thats a new definition of cheap alright.

    • great comment, i just hope you're wrong on one aspect:

      I hope that despite M$'s objections, we get linux on the XBOX anyway, because as cool as the PS2 is, the XB is cooler...

  • XBox (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Hostile17 ( 415334 ) on Monday October 22, 2001 @11:41PM (#2464105) Journal


    I am going to wait for the Linux Hack of the XBox. A 766 Proccessor, 8 GB HDD and NVIDIA video, for $299, can't be beat this side of an E-Machine.


    • Re:XBox (Score:2, Insightful)

      by bani ( 467531 )
      You know the FEMTOSECOND someone ports Linux to XBOX, micro$oft is gonna bust out screaming "DMCA VIOLATION" and have the person thrown in prison.

      In fact, this is probably what M$ fears most about XBOX -- that someone will crack it and allow open source OS to be installed, thus turning it into a cheap PC.

      XBOX would make an awesome MAME/divx console...
      • yeah, but the Xbox is not licensed to the user, it is owned by the user.....of cource we are talking about MS hear so they will most likly d such a thing, lose, then beging licensing the Xbox....soon, people will start a subscription to have an Xbox in the home so they can subscribe to Windows 2010 so they can subscribe to Games and Office 2009.....errmmmmm....
    • I wanna see a Darwin port to the Gamecube...

      $199, no HD, but still... nifty.

    • Re:XBox (Score:2, Insightful)

      by zeno_2 ( 518291 )
      Actually im waiting for an xbox emulator to come out on a pc

  • Cool NetPC? (Score:2, Funny)

    by cornice ( 9801 )
    What I wouldn't give to see the look on my bosses face when I show up with a truckload of PS2s and hand one to each employee as they arrive at work. Give me an X environment and a fast NIC and I'm there. I can see the new employee manual now... "No playing --insert your favorite game here-- during business hours." And yes I would prefer to navigate my spreadsheets with a joystick.

  • You DONT really want this... (Score:5, Informative)

    by bani ( 467531 ) on Monday October 22, 2001 @11:53PM (#2464144)
    Ive used it, and its SLOW

    PS2 doesnt have much memory and its unexpandable anyway, so things like building a kernel take all day while the thing swaps into the stratosphere... if youre going to develop for this thing, you really want to cross compile. You dont want to self-host build at all.

    CPU wise, the R5900 @ 294mhz is roughly equivalent to a K6/233. Please, dont argue about what this CPU is "theoretically" capable of. Right now GCC is very unoptimized for this architecture, so a K6/233 IS what this thing is going to perform like, unless you want to hand code MIPS ASM.

    Its very cute, but the Mesa HW implementation is rather incomplete and binutils has various bugs preventing lots of stuff from linking properly.

    Oh yeah, it's also expensive as hell (compared to what the equivalent $$ would buy you in x86 hardware)

    To me, its mainly a curiosity, nothing more. Dreamcast Linux is far more interesting -- and far cheaper.

    The main reason everyone I know who has bought PS2 linux is for the VGA adaptor so they can play PS2 games in hires ^_^;

    Still, it's nice that Sony did the port.
    • [insert-platform-name-here] doesnt have much memory and its unexpandable anyway

      Famous last words! (Where's the hacker spirit?!)
    • I don't disagree with most of what you say (though I can't help but wonder how an R5900@294MHz could do fp as slow as a K6/233). However, there is something funny about the line "...unless you want to hand code MIPS ASM.". You make it sound like hand coding MIPS ASM is hard or unpleasant. Hand coding MIPS ASM is a joy. The ugliest thing I can think of is the branch delay slot (does it exist on the R5900?), and even that is beautiful if you know why it is there.
      -Paul Komarek
    • Upon hearing the news, I was excited, but if you think about it, using the machine as a linux desktop/server/hacking machine would not be all that exciting. I want to see if the software they release will support all that fancy-shmancy hardware in that sucker, especially the graphics processing. I'd like to make games for it that utilize everything that regular game developers get to play with. I DON'T want another "run X on this machine, yay!" bull shit.

      I hope against hope that there will be support/libs for all of the PS2's cool hardware.

    • Total cache size: 8K.

      Yes, 8K.

  • think that's impressive? (Score:3, Funny)

    by smilinggoat ( 443212 ) on Monday October 22, 2001 @11:58PM (#2464161) Homepage Journal
    linux shminux. just wait till Apple releases OS X 10.2 for the PS.
  • [slashdot.org]
    SDL has been ported to the PS2.

    This will make amateur game development for the PS2 *much* easier.

  • Bridgehead into the home ... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by LL ( 20038 ) on Tuesday October 23, 2001 @12:01AM (#2464174)
    Why do both MS and Sony want to control the broadband bridgehead into the living room? Because they can then become the toll-booth onto the distribution of electronic services. It may surprise people but Sony has acquired themselves a bank and MS own a controlling stake in a cheque clearing-house. Much like phone companies have to subsidise handsets and stick customers with the long-term contracts, everyone is gunning for a slice of the electronic services that businesses are switching over ... you don't buy airline tickets, you bid for a seat, insurance, superannuation, identity, membership of professional societies, job contracts, even social contacts (rolodex on steroids) ... all these are basically electronic goods that people will be willing to acquire.

    The problems is making someone else fork out the capital for infrastructure, the smart people identify the bottlenecks and position themselves where the traffic concentration makes it worthwhile to extract their tax/toll/vig.

    Nothing changed from highway robbery days except who gets to collect the loot.

    LL

  • Follow Up On The Petitions? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Lethyos ( 408045 ) on Tuesday October 23, 2001 @12:14AM (#2464211) Journal
    Sony has answered our petitions to bring a Linux port to the PSX2. Many people who singed the petition, myself included, claimed that seeing Linux available on the PSX2 would prompt a purchase. I know I intend to, but in general, are we going to support Sony for supporting us? Are we going to encourage big companies to do what we ask by following through with our claims? Or is the general public going to just drop the ball and show Sony and other large tech corps that what we write in petitions is bullshit?

  • RAMBUS huh? Somebody connect the dots here for me. (Score:4, Funny)

    by nyet ( 19118 ) on Tuesday October 23, 2001 @12:17AM (#2464222) Homepage
    Okamoto also gave accolades to conference host Rambus Inc., saying that the memory company was one of the most important contributors to the design and manufacture of the PlayStation 2. "We defined the main application on the PlayStation 2 as MPEG-2 (video) decoding," he said. "The solution was dual-channel RDRAM (Rambus Dynamic RAM) because MPEG-2 decoding for high-definition images is very heavy." Each PlayStation 2 uses 32M bytes of RDRAM.

    I must have missed something. RAMBUS actually did something useful other than crank out patents? Somebody illuminate me on this. I was unaware they had anything other than lawyers working for them anymore.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
      Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • For all the flack Rambus got for their (idiotic) patent-flinging, RDRAM actually does have a few advantages over DDRRAM, namely, higher throughput, but at the cost of higher latency. So, it takes its time to get going, but once it's started, it GOES. Which means, for applications needing to stream through a huge, contiguous chunk of data very quickly (such as, oh, full motion video decompression) RAMBUS actually has a superior product. (Although, IMO, still doesn't break even on the cost-per-performance mark.) I remember reading some specs on ArsTechnica [arstechnica.com] a while back. (I think that's the article I'm thinking of...)
  • ...an Amiga CD32.

    Think about it...

  • No no no... (Score:4, Funny)

    by zCyl ( 14362 ) on Tuesday October 23, 2001 @12:46AM (#2464311)
    I want to be able to run Playstation 2 games on my Linux box. They have it all backwards. They need to release a Linux port of the Playstation 2. Now THAT would be something, even closed source and commercial, it would be a welcomed addition.

  • All I want is (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    a PS2 as a firewall :) I'd like to see the script kiddies root that machine.
  • well I signed the petition. I said i get one and now I will.

  • Enough already (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Sarcasmooo! ( 267601 ) on Tuesday October 23, 2001 @03:33AM (#2464663)
    I'm not the type to go off on a diatribe about how 'bad slashdot has gotten' and how it's 'sold out', but I'm starting to feel like while reading the site, I have to dodge commercials for Sony products. One day I'm reading about a 'call to arms' against the SSSCA and the record industry that's pushing it, the next day I'm passing over "news stories" that scream hooray Sony! [slashdot.org] Sony being one of the largest parts of the RIAA, and representing a very large amount of political contributions. Feh.
    • You know, some people here have their own opinions, and like a diversity of news stories. If CmdrTaco announces that Slashdot was boycotting Sony (sorry, SONY) there would be an uproar. I have a Vaio. I oppose the DMCA and SSSCA. I am interested in PS2 stories. Yes this could be described as contradictory. Deal with it.
  • AFAIK, Sony has not yet contributed the linux kernel changes they made back to the community.

    I'd love to run Linux on my PSX2, tough. But it's not worth it if i can't re-compile my kernel and learn from looking through the source. That's the big point in OpenSource: contribute back to the community, not just take the source and be fond of saved developing time.

    I also think that Sony is legally forced to reveal the Source as the Linux Kernel is GPL.
    • You've fallen victim to one of the classic blunders! The first is never get involved in a land war in Asia against Cowboy Neal! Only slightly less known is this: never assume that a large corporation is in violation of the GPL just because you can't find the source!

      IANAL, IANRMS (I Am Not Richard M. Stallman), and other disclaimers, but my understanding is that the GPL only requires that you must make the source available to those you have distributed binaries to. It doesn't *have* to be available for download, it just frequently is. If the source is being withheld from those who have purchased Linux for PS2, then we can start complaining.

      And for those comparing which would make a better set-top PC, PS2 or Xbox, I suggest we start a pool for guessing how many minutes after the official Xbox release that someone boots Linux on an Xbox and releases the source, based on a 12:00am EST release on November 15. Negative numbers are acceptable guesses. Given that the hardware is basically an Nvidia nForce chipset, Geforce variant video computer, it really shouldn't take that long.

      - Stealth Dave
    • But it's not worth it if i can't re-compile my kernel and learn from looking through the source.

      If you did recompile your kernel, how would you boot into it? You can't just burn a new CD yourself because of the PS2 copy protection system. If they haven't designed their bootloader to let you do this then you'd have to resort to /proc/kmem tricks.

      My understanding is that they only have to offer the source to anyone they give a binary to, i.e. anyone who buys a PS2 Linux kit. However, they then can't stop someone who did buy a kit posting the source on the web.

  • Mass market for Sun (Score:2, Interesting)

    by derekb ( 262726 )
    What an exciting opportunity for Sun [sun.com] to achieve a large market for its StarOffice [sun.com] suite.

  • Sony and TiVo have entered into a deal that will allow Sony to integrate (and even modify) TiVo's software and services into their entertainment products.

    Anyone thought the work to port Linux onto US and European region PS2s could be in preparation to run Tivo Software on your PS2? Supposedly, FireWire is emerging as the defacto standard for sending digital video signals from digital tuners (terrestrial, cable or satelite) to other h/w (Your new TV set, or D-VHS, or in future DVD-RAM). PS2 is ready to take an MPEG feed, and the Hard Disk is on the way....

    Any Thoughts? Andy.

  • Does this mean I need to subscribe to a mailing list now to make sure my PS2 doesn't get out of date, and some bastard hacks into my PS2 making it unplayable?! I couldn't live without it! Oh wait yeah I can it got stolen =(

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