smoketetsuo (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
smoketetsuo) wrote2006-03-21 07:12 pm
smoketetsuo) wrote2006-03-21 07:12 pm
PS3 Linux
I was going to write about this as a part of the previous entry I just posted but i figured that it would be better to put this as a seperate entry There has been some rumbling around the internet as far as Sony announcing they will put Linux on the PS3's hard drive. Sony is coming from the angle that they want people to see the PS3 as more than just a game system.
However some people are misunderstanding the role that Linux will most likely play in the PS3. The OS will be bundled on the hard drive but that doesn't mean the games will run through it and the games will not be written for Linux it will still be written directly for the PS3 so you put the disc in and play it direct just like you currently do with the PS2. So this also means that it doesn't automatically mean more games for Linux and if you want to get PS3 only games you still need to buy a PS3.
Sony had a Linux kit for the PS2 and that seems to me what pretty much this is going to be only this time it's bundled with the system rather than being purchased as an add on.
You also have to consider that this is Sony we are talking about so there probably are restrictions as to what you can do with the PS3 Linux that aren't normally present in a typical Linux box. So while more exposure is better than less exposure for linux it's hard to say if this is actually as good a thing as some people think it might be.
We don't know to what capacity Linux would be on there anyway. We don't know if it is going to be a full desktop OS or if it's just a cut down version that just has full screen software for viewing\editing images, watching videos and listening to music.
Sony says that any OS could be run on the PS3 as an application but that's just being tecnnical because marketing will always cast their product in the best light saying what it can technically do but not reasonably do. So technically if it had a full desktop OS you could run a program like vmware and run OS' on top of that but that's not as full a solution as some people think it might be because those types of programs don't emulate a good video card so you don't get the full benefit of the graphics chip that the PS3 has also you got to consider that there are layers of emulation you are going through which makes the emulated CPU slower than the host CPU which slow down programs and 512mb total memory (half for video and half for system) ram isn't enough to do anything serious in that kind of environment.
Anyway most people who get a PS3 I would bet you wouldn't even care that it has a copy of Linux available for it and buy the system primarily for gaming. Some people don't even want an OS on their console and I am thinking why should those people have to pay for something they are not going to use? Sony is just getting a feather in their cap that microsoft doesn't have but it doesn't really benefit the consumer in the end I don't think.
But that's marketing for you. Speaking of marketing BS they are saying that games on the PS3 are going to be 4D. The reason why I don't like them calling the games 4D is because we don't even have full 3D in games because even though they are rendered in 3D we play them on flat 2D monitors. So unless the PS3 included some kind of 3D solution like some kind of 3D glasses they are one or two dimensions short of 4. =p I read that their "PS3 live" type system will enable 4D again that is marketing BS because online play doesn't make your game suddenly 3D and have smells or whatever the fourth dimension is (time? =ppp). You see technically all games are 3D because they have X, Y, and time dimensions but that's being technical. A 3d game could technically be called a 4D game if you count X, Y, Z and Time but again that's being technical but not truthfull especially when you are playing it on a flat monitor. I can imagine kids proclaiming how much better PS3 is because it has "4D" gaming when it actually is the same kind of gaming that you can get on other systems.
However some people are misunderstanding the role that Linux will most likely play in the PS3. The OS will be bundled on the hard drive but that doesn't mean the games will run through it and the games will not be written for Linux it will still be written directly for the PS3 so you put the disc in and play it direct just like you currently do with the PS2. So this also means that it doesn't automatically mean more games for Linux and if you want to get PS3 only games you still need to buy a PS3.
Sony had a Linux kit for the PS2 and that seems to me what pretty much this is going to be only this time it's bundled with the system rather than being purchased as an add on.
You also have to consider that this is Sony we are talking about so there probably are restrictions as to what you can do with the PS3 Linux that aren't normally present in a typical Linux box. So while more exposure is better than less exposure for linux it's hard to say if this is actually as good a thing as some people think it might be.
We don't know to what capacity Linux would be on there anyway. We don't know if it is going to be a full desktop OS or if it's just a cut down version that just has full screen software for viewing\editing images, watching videos and listening to music.
Sony says that any OS could be run on the PS3 as an application but that's just being tecnnical because marketing will always cast their product in the best light saying what it can technically do but not reasonably do. So technically if it had a full desktop OS you could run a program like vmware and run OS' on top of that but that's not as full a solution as some people think it might be because those types of programs don't emulate a good video card so you don't get the full benefit of the graphics chip that the PS3 has also you got to consider that there are layers of emulation you are going through which makes the emulated CPU slower than the host CPU which slow down programs and 512mb total memory (half for video and half for system) ram isn't enough to do anything serious in that kind of environment.
Anyway most people who get a PS3 I would bet you wouldn't even care that it has a copy of Linux available for it and buy the system primarily for gaming. Some people don't even want an OS on their console and I am thinking why should those people have to pay for something they are not going to use? Sony is just getting a feather in their cap that microsoft doesn't have but it doesn't really benefit the consumer in the end I don't think.
But that's marketing for you. Speaking of marketing BS they are saying that games on the PS3 are going to be 4D. The reason why I don't like them calling the games 4D is because we don't even have full 3D in games because even though they are rendered in 3D we play them on flat 2D monitors. So unless the PS3 included some kind of 3D solution like some kind of 3D glasses they are one or two dimensions short of 4. =p I read that their "PS3 live" type system will enable 4D again that is marketing BS because online play doesn't make your game suddenly 3D and have smells or whatever the fourth dimension is (time? =ppp). You see technically all games are 3D because they have X, Y, and time dimensions but that's being technical. A 3d game could technically be called a 4D game if you count X, Y, Z and Time but again that's being technical but not truthfull especially when you are playing it on a flat monitor. I can imagine kids proclaiming how much better PS3 is because it has "4D" gaming when it actually is the same kind of gaming that you can get on other systems.