Some PS3 Linux details

steviec

In an interview translated from Japanese here

The PS3 will come standard with a functional Linux Operating System as well as compilers and other tools. This will give a vast playground to all the programmers on the PS3. This means that the PS3 will support all USB drives. Even back in the PlayStation generation, there were a lot of creations by homebrew developers. On the PS3, this will be much more.

Sounds very promising indeed. Given the homebrew community's dedication to other consoles, a PS3 with powerful and completely open hardware along with a familiar development environment and tools right out of the box should lead to a wide variety of games, emulators and other software in no time.

While I'm generally of the opinion that I want a Games machine first and everything else second, the idea that the PS3 could soon have a wide variety of free software is a huge bonus.

Again though, I wouldnt get too excited till we actually know more details, theres still an awful lot of unanswered questions about this aspect of the console.

Ciaran500

Doubt we'll get full access to hardware purely because someone will end up finding an exploit.

Dont be at yourself

Yeah, it seems to be the exact opposite approach to the one they`ve taken with the PSP, and I`m sceptical to say the least. Still, they constantly refer to it as a "computer" as opposed to anything else, so it`s interesting.

Ciaran500

NekkidBibleMan wrote:

Still, they constantly refer to it as a "computer" as opposed to anything else

Thats cause they get tax breaks when bringing it into the EU if they can class it as a computer. They tried to do it with the PS2.

Blowfish

There are a few more details on arstechnica here. There is also an interesting description of it on the ibm site here (more for the linux initiated). It appears that there will be full access to the hardware, but i'm guessing a chunk of it will be through binary drivers, to protect DRM. The Nvidia GPU is the main bit that I would be wondering about, if it is done as a dual boot, will they put the effort in and create a fully functional Linux driver?

projectmayhem

i'm not really considering the "new" games that could be made, but moreso the possibility of running mods for games. as was previously said, can't say too much until sony release all of the details, but it's certainly an interesting twist in the console games saga

wayne040576

projectmayhem wrote:

i'm not really considering the "new" games that could be made, but moreso the possibility of running mods for games. as was previously said, can't say too much until sony release all of the details, but it's certainly an interesting twist in the console games saga

I don't think any community created games would use the machine to its fullest potential. You will probably be able to run most open source games already available for linux (tuxracer etc) once they are compiled to run on the architecture. The compiling will be a job in itself and all apps will require pople to port them. Any big community created games would probaby never see the light of day. Mods would be a good thing but would that require interaction been the linux OS and the PS games? I don't know if they'll allow that. I'd expect a lot of multi media type apps popping up. So we'll have to wait and see.

Blowfish

wayne040576 wrote:

I don't think any community created games would use the machine to its fullest potential. You will probably be able to run most open source games already available for linux (tuxracer etc) once they are compiled to run on the architecture. The compiling will be a job in itself and all apps will require pople to port them. Any big community created games would probaby never see the light of day. Mods would be a good thing but would that require interaction been the linux OS and the PS games? I don't know if they'll allow that. I'd expect a lot of multi media type apps popping up. So we'll have to wait and see.

Apparently, the code will be compiled in two seperate parts. Since the main part is pretty much a powerpc, gcc didn't need to be modified. For most of the smaller open source apps, it will actually be no problem to compile them, as long as they have a powerpc port. The Nvidia GPU is similar to their pc range, so that wouldn't be much of a problem either.

LookingFor

This is one thing in particular that makes me very excited about PS3. As much for the media possibilities as homebrew gaming or whatnot. You know of that Xbox MC mod? Potentially every PS3 could be like that, and so much more.

shortys94

this is good news, but is it just me or is everyone being way too pesomistic about the PS3, I mean sony have delivered before, and it seems everyone has given up on them because a lack of videos and news at E3....

LookingFor

shortys94 wrote:

it seems everyone has given up on them because a lack of videos and news at E3....

There was a lack? There's a lot of stuff out there, a lot of new media on new and not-so-new PS3 games shown at E3. I don't think news or videos was the problem for a lot of people, it was more like sticker-shock at the price. I personally think it's worth it, but a lot of people are used to paying no more than say €300 on their game systems (heck, most people buy into them when they're €200 or less..obviously that's the later end of the market).

shortys94

im just trying to say sony have always delivered the goods

LookingFor

shortys94 wrote:

im just trying to say sony have always delivered the goods

Oh I'm confident PS3 will be an excellent machine. Their best yet, perhaps, from my point of view. I mean it seemed almost too good to be true how well things were falling into place pre-E3 Price is temporary, though, it won't be €500/€600 forever (or for very long at all, IMO).

Anyway, back to Linux. Was I the only one who downloaded the Cell Simulator for Fedora Core? I haven't had a proper chance to play around with it yet, but it seems pretty comprehensive. Could be a good way to get a headstart on any homebrew.

wayne040576

shortys94 wrote:

this is good news, but is it just me or is everyone being way too pesomistic about the PS3, I mean sony have delivered before, and it seems everyone has given up on them because a lack of videos and news at E3....

I've been reading a lot of different sites and also listening to a lot of podcasts over the last week. The one thing that is brought up quite a lot by people who were at the show is that the PS3 demos (of the same games) looked identical to the xbox360 ones. Sometimes it was difficult to tell which version was being demoed. So given the price difference, the PS3 didn't seem to offer much extra. I think the PS3 was hyped to be a much more powerful machine and there was some disappointment by the fact that the games looked pretty much the same. But that happens a lot with cross platform titles anyways. Plus the 360 is now entering the next phase of games were they should be pushing its abilities more. We won't see any clear differences until the PS is out and we can see for oursleves what it can do.

Also the psp got very had very little news, compared to the DS which got a lot of coverage from nintendo.

One good point that was made though was that with the PS3 you'll get everything including the ability to play blu ray discs out of the box. The 360 may be cheaper but how much will the hd-dvd add on be?

projectmayhem

wayne040576 wrote:

I've been reading a lot of different sites and also listening to a lot of podcasts over the last week. The one thing that is brought up quite a lot by people who were at the show is that the PS3 demos (of the same games) looked identical to the xbox360 ones. Sometimes it was difficult to tell which version was being demoed. So given the price difference, the PS3 didn't seem to offer much extra. I think the PS3 was hyped to be a much more powerful machine and there was some disappointment by the fact that the games looked pretty much the same.

i will point out, in defence of the poor developers out there, that games shown at e3 were still in early-mid stages in their development cycles. so, they will look, and perform better

steviec

projectmayhem wrote:

i will point out, in defence of the poor developers out there, that games shown at e3 were still in early-mid stages in their development cycles. so, they will look, and perform better

They look a hell of a lot better than Microsoft did this time last year, and their basically at the same stage now as MS were then. Still, they'd need to be given the price their charging.