Playstation 3 and Linux?

I currently own an Xbox 360 (Great system by the way) but I recently have become interested in PS3's Linux capabillities. How does it compare to a mid or low range PC?

Can I attach an external DVD burner to the PS3? Can I burn CD's and convert AVI, MP3, ect lighting fast on the PS3 becuase of the cell? How is basic web surfing? Never used Linux.

Curious? My buy one on the first price drop for this. I have a feeling the small amount of ram hurts here.

 

Well, at the moment, the majority of distros that run on the PS3 only use the one main processor, so performance is not that great. If you compiled your system from source code (eg Gentoo) I'm sure you could get great performance on the PS3. A fast harddrive will help with speed to, as well as using a light WM such as Xfce.

I have Ubuntu running on an old Compaq Armada M700, w/700MHz PIII and 192Mb ram, and Ubuntu runs okay. Not the greatest, but okay.

Yes, an external DVD burner will work. Basic web surfing is handled by Firefox usually. Programs are also available for converting media like you want.

Hopefully I'll be picking up a PS3 in the next few months, and I'll have a go at putting Gentoo on it for sure.

If you have never used Linux, you can download a LiveCD of many different distributions. You can try the system out on your machine without touching your harddrive (although CD-only performance is slow) to see if you like the way it works.

 

Good stuff about Gentoo!

What is PS3 current OS? Is it any Unix variant? Why would some need to change the OS?

Could you go back to original PS3 OS later?

Will you be able to play PS2 games in Linux platform?

 

If that was all it took, don't you think it'd have been done already?
Or more specifically, any Linux distro is obviously compiled from sources. The reason the end-user sometimes does it on PC's is that his hardware setup might differ from what any precompiled version might assume.
On a PS3, just how much do you expect the hardware to differ? Any Linux distro that runs on PS3 is compiled for the PS3.

The problem is that the PS3's CPU is not a general purpose CPU. It is not well suited for "boring" tasks like running an OS or a word processor. It only has one core that's even halfway capable of doing these tasks. And that core is nowhere near as fast as a good PC CPU.

Has anyone actually written the necessary modifications and drivers for it to run?

Yes, if you run on a supported system. Not many distros support the PS3's hardware.
The problem is that the PS3's hardware is different from a PC's hardware. Which means it won't *just* run, livecd or no, compiling from sources or no.

Badly.
For most general-purpose tasks (everything except media encoding/decoding and to some extent games), a PC is *a lot* faster.

However, assuming someone writes the necessary software and drivers to take advantage of the Cell processors, then yes, tasks like converting mp3's or avi's would be extremely fast.

 

Why would you want to run linux on a PS3?

That would be like no games squared.

Apples to oranges, you'll get better periphreal support out of your PC than you ever will a console from this era.

 

It's a custom Sony thing, the XMB is. It's not a UNIX variant.

Of course, you just reboot your machine.

When the GPU can do proper 3D rendering under Linux, and someone writes a PPC PS2 emulator.

Wrong. The standard PowerPC variations of the distros are what are running on the PS3. Yellow Dog Linux is the only version pre-compiled for PS3, and it still has the same limitations.

Agreed, I wouldn't use it for all my computer usage, but it's a nice addition to my existing setup.

Accelerated 3D and wireless currently do not work.

I don't know of any LiveCDs that run on it at the moment, but seeing as how you're running a PC distro on a games console, of course it will take some tinkering.

Well, apparently it makes a nice HTPC. MythTV frontends run on it. Plus, you can just boot back into the PS3 OS for gaming.

I don't think anyones saying, "Why would you want to buy a PC? Just get a PS3!" it's more meant as something extra. I could sit down on a couch and bring up streaming video on my HDTV.

 

psubuntu.com shows you how to install and run the Ubuntu Linux operating system on a Playstation 3.


But still it's a beta one I don't advise you to go for it.

Up to now I didn't see any Linux variant supports PS3 WLAN yet, beside PS3 default OS still more powerful and use all PS3 hardware.

 

With custom drivers for the hardware, yes.
Not sure what you're trying to say though. Any Linux OS that runs on the PS3 is compiled *for* the PS3. It might be compiled from the same sources as the Linux running on other platforms, but in order to run on a PS3, it has to be compiled for a PS3. It doesn't make a difference whether you or someone else performs the compilation. The target hardware is *exactly* the same in either case.

Compiling it yourself won't gain you anything. Writing the missing drivers yourself, now that would pay off. For one thing, it'd give you access to all the PS3's hardware.

 

Last I heard, Linux runs just fun (yes, I said fun on purpose, but if you can't stand it, then read it as "fine". Ok now that I've totally distracted you from the purpose of the sentence preceding the parenthesis, let me just say that I can't think of a worse way to spend $1000 than to buy a PS3. I mean, seriously, why not just buy an Asus laptop with a midrange GPU for the same price? Some of them even have HDMI outputs for high def gaming on an HDTV. Yeah sure you won't get a Blu-Ray drive, but wouldn't you want to wait for the format wars to end before you spend next month's rent on something that could go obsolete in a year? Also, I'm liking the looks of the Xbox 360 Elite.) on a modded Xbox.

 

I agree with Jalf,
Since Linux can't offer the option to Play PS2 games, why do we need to get Linux in every box?