what is the general feeling towards ps3 being linux friendly ?is it good or bad ?

[nocova]

i wondering what everyone thinks about ps3 being somewhat linux friendly im really just starting out with linux and have very little knowledge i have tried before ps3 came out to associate my self with linux but i have to admit im a lazy windowsalite has any one tried messing about with the ps3 ?

[ls354]

Wikipedia describes the exact way I feel

Linux for PlayStation 3 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Anything you can get Linux to run on it good.

[questio verum]

There are tons of how-to's on the web. Yellow Dog, Fedora, and others have been successfully installed. Sony also has a site supporting linux on the PS3, but don't ask me for the url. I've long since forgotten it. Good luck with it though. Let us know how it goes.

qv

[ryokimball]

My raw opinion is that the ps3 is a monster computer, and I would love to get my hands on one solely to put Linux or anything else on it to take advantage of the power (although I wouldn't complain about games and movies...).

[techieMoe]

Personally I don't understand the need to put Linux on the PS3 (or the PS2, for that matter). It's a game console that plays Blu-Ray movies. It does that last task very well. I see no reason to basically screw it up. Good luck though. Hope it all works out for you.

[ryokimball]

Personally I don't understand the need to put Linux on the PS3 (or the PS2, for that matter). It's a game console that plays Blu-Ray movies. It does that last task very well. I see no reason to basically screw it up. Good luck though. Hope it all works out for you.

When you see the PS3, is that really all you see: the ability to play games and watch HD movies? Do you honestly ignore the fact that it has a hard drive, USB ports, bluetooth and other wireless interfaces, even an IR port and many other parts that are identical if not surpassing of the very computer that you or I am using at this very moment? Granted, it is different in many ways (the entire architecture of the processor is different), but because of that it is capable of even more than the computers that are sold for twice or three times as much money as it is now. It is merely a task of getting what you want out of the machine that powerful but also that different.
Honestly, I don't know of any way to make any sort of change without humbly offering it in a way that everyone else might at least look at it. The cell arch. is so radical that hardly any developers will even take a look at it and try to find ways to make it work. Without developers the users won't come. So Sony puts out this "marvelous" Cell processor, Blu-Ray technology, et cetera in the cheapest/quickest format they can find: a gaming console. The next step is "full-fledged" computers (there are already Blu-Ray drives flying around for computers...). People will pick it up (at Sony's financial loss... not that it's "cheap" as far as gaming systems go) and play with it. The same people who have been flexing their hack-muscles with playstations and xboxes and gamecubes get ahold of a ps3 and start putting "real" power behind it. More people see it and say "hey, good idea!" and development picks up pace. Other people ("users") see the things they've done and put it to use for themselves, either paying for it or not (usually with linux being "not."). Before you know it, all the stuff that Sony wanted us to use is being used everywhere.

...winding down.
Of course, I mean no offense or grudge to TechieMoe. You're still one of the most respectable people on the forum. I just noticed the opinion and thought I'd take my shot at furthering my point of view. I understand that many a hacks have been done for the sake of "hacking," without any reason or merit behind, but this is one I think has a genuine purpose behind it. Or at least has potential.
Besides, how could putting a penguin behind anything be considered "screwing it up"? ^,^

[techieMoe]

When you see the PS3, is that really all you see: the ability to play games and watch HD movies? Do you honestly ignore the fact that it has a hard drive, USB ports, bluetooth and other wireless interfaces, even an IR port and many other parts that are identical if not surpassing of the very computer that you or I am using at this very moment?

No, I don't ignore those features. I see them as extensions to the device's primary function: playing games and movies. The simple fact that the device has these features does not somehow obviate the need to put a desktop computer operating system on it.

...winding down.
Of course, I mean no offense or grudge to TechieMoe. You're still one of the most respectable people on the forum. I just noticed the opinion and thought I'd take my shot at furthering my point of view. I understand that many a hacks have been done for the sake of "hacking," without any reason or merit behind, but this is one I think has a genuine purpose behind it. Or at least has potential.

I take no offense. You're perfectly welcome and encouraged to have your own opinion on things. I simply have an opposite one. My general opinion can be boiled down to "if it ain't broke, don't try and fix it."

Besides, how could putting a penguin behind anything be considered "screwing it up"? ^,^

I know you're being facetious here, but I take things like this seriously. The idea of installing Linux on a device simply because you can may be fun to some people. For those people, great, mess with your own electronics all you like.

For me, when I purchase an electronic device that is not a computer, I don't think of it as such. It is an electronic device designed to perform a certain task. I don't try to hack my TV or my toaster to run Linux just because I can. That would be, in my opinion, screwing up a functional product. It doesn't matter if you try and put Windows, OS X, or Plan 9 on it for goodness' sake. It's still screwing it up.

[ryokimball]

No, I don't ignore those features. I see them as extensions to the device's primary function: playing games and movies. The simple fact that the device has these features does not somehow obviate the need to put a desktop computer operating system on it.

I think I see what you're saying --some people do obsess over... well, there's someone out there to obsess about everything. I've got caught up in a great band or TV show a time or two, and for most of my life I've been on a hair-trigger to spew out hours of yapping about computers and video games, but I've rarely felt the compulsion to put House, MD backgrounds or paint my car with pictures of Bond. I do understand that some people are that way though. I see a USB cord on a DVR and think "I could probably download movies from there..." where others think "Make it a computer!!" when they already have a dozen more powerful, et cetera "computers" lying around.

I take no offense. You're perfectly welcome and encouraged to have your own opinion on things. I simply have an opposite one. My general opinion can be boiled down to "if it ain't broke, don't try and fix it."

I know what you mean here, too. I've heard many a complaint against people who want to hack the iPod Touch for Linux, saying it already has a great, intuitive interface, there is a dev. kit out for it, and so on. I don't necessarily want or not want Linux on my iPod Touch if I ever got one, but that kind of idea is, to me, equivalent to sticking images of your favorite things everywhere. It might lower resale value or even screw the item's functionality up, but if it's yours, and it makes you happy, then whatever.

For me, when I purchase an electronic device that is not a computer, I don't think of it as such. It is an electronic device designed to perform a certain task. I don't try to hack my TV or my toaster to run Linux just because I can. That would be, in my opinion, screwing up a functional product. It doesn't matter if you try and put Windows, OS X, or Plan 9 on it for goodness' sake. It's still screwing it up.

The only thing I have against that is the idea that, poetically, some things are made to be broken. My father once said that the reason he likes the gaming industry so much is because they push the higher graphics, faster processors, et cetera to the end-user, where prices must be low and production must be high (and therefore cheap). In relation to this: sure, a TV or monitor is best used as such --the LCD monitor I have now has two built-in speakers I would gladly do without and would never want to add anything "built in" to the monitor as such. But I do believe that the PS3 is not only capable but actually made to be fiddled with and expanded upon, learned from and pushed so that Sony's new ideas can flourish inside future computers and stuff.
Oh, and I just needed a place for this...

[darkrose0510]

I don't try to hack my TV or my toaster to run Linux just because I can.

hmm...

$ ssh root@192.168.0.59
root@toaster ~ # toast --slice=2 --bread=wholemeal --time=3.2 | spread -jam

Now we just need a model train or something to deliver the finished toast.