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Sony and Terra Soft make good on the "PC Killer" promise

Sony has said in the past that the PlayStation 3 would render traditional PCs useless given its powerful processing platform and Linux-based operating system. "We believe that the PS3 will be the place where our users play games, watch films, browse the Web, and use other [home] computer functions. The PlayStation 3 is a computer. We do not need the PC," said Sony's Phil Harrision in late May.

It appears that Harrison's dream is coming true. The PS3 hasn't even been released yet, but Colorado-based Terra Soft has announced a 3rd-party Linux-based operating system for the console. Yellow Dog Linux v5.0 fully supports the PlayStation 3 platform, is built on Fedora Core 5.0 and brings the following to the table:

  • kernel 2.6.16
  • gcc 4.1.1 and glibc 2.4
  • Cell SDK 1.1
  • OpenOffice.org 2.0.2
  • FireFox 1.5.0 and Thunderbird 1.5.0
  • Nautilus 2.14
  • Suite of Personal Accessories, Development Tools; Sound & Video, Internet, and
  • Networking applications

The operating system will come with an easy to use installer to make installation a breeze. For those that are little more adventurous, a more advanced installer will be available giving users access to over 1,500 packages. According to Terra Soft, Yellow Dog Linux v5.0 is fully sanctioned by SCEI and incorporates code and input from Sony, Barcelona Supercomputing Center, Sony Group, and Fedora.

With this announcement, it makes more sense for buyers to rush for the high-end version of the PS3. That version’s a 60GB hard drive, wireless adapter and media reader would make the most of using the PS3 as a PC replacement.

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will it play the games
By vorgusa on 10/19/2006 9:57:39 AM , Rating: 2
MythTV is definetly a good ability if it can.. I am sure it will be able to, maybe with some help from mythTV. Another thing that would be good is the ability to play PS3 games with the Linux OS on it... Does anyone know if it will be able to?




RE: will it play the games
By FITCamaro on 10/19/2006 10:03:03 AM , Rating: 2
I'll admit that the prospect of using the PS3 as a box to use Myth TV through is quite appealing....

I'm not a Linux fan but $600 for a fully fledged PC that I can play video off my video server through, it'd be worth it over building a media center PC.


RE: will it play the games
By r0y on 10/19/2006 11:03:57 AM , Rating: 2
I must concur. If one can get full media centre functionality on top of its main feature, next-gen gaming, with bd-rom support, 600$ will be daylight robbery. However knowing Sony I do not take anything for granted (free and simple…)

And I am sure once the unit is out in the wild and the homebreweries have start making some delicious contributions the PS3 will be everything we can ever dream about.


RE: will it play the games
By oTAL (blog) on 10/19/2006 1:12:31 PM , Rating: 2
You can have that with a soft-modded xbox. The original, very affordable x-box... The only limitation is resolution...


RE: will it play the games
By Alexvrb on 10/20/2006 12:17:08 PM , Rating: 2
Actually, you guys should check out the latest version of XBMC. It has support for 720p/1080i, supports a lot of codecs and has some pretty cool features. The only limit will prove to be video that requires too many cycles even with limited GPU acceleration and without postprocessing. Still, it is pretty amazing how far you can go with an extremely affordable original Xbox and Xbox Media Center.


RE: will it play the games
By stmok on 10/19/2006 11:09:02 AM , Rating: 5
In theory its possible to put MythTV on the PS3 and turn it into a media centre...

(1) PS3 has fours USB 2.0 ports. During setup of MythTV, you occupy two for keyboard and mouse. This leaves two free. After you finished setting things up, you won't need mouse or keyboard.

(2) I know of two USB 2.0 capture boxes that work with MythTV, so that can be your video inputs. (One is from Hauppauge, the other is from Plextor). So one or more USB capture boxes can be hooked up...But be warned, you'll need to compile the drivers from the source! (The issue here is that, one may need to rewrite and optimise the software to exploit the Cell processor).

So its possible to have something like...

USB 1: Mouse (for initial setup)
USB 2: Keyboard (for initial setup)
USB 3: USB TV Capture box
USB 4: External HDD (temporary place to hold video archive)
Ethernet Connection: Dump video file to other PC.

Assuming a remote is compatible with PS3 and Linux, this shouldn't be too much of a problem.


Heck, you can possibly do other combinations like turning the PS3 into a multi-purpose server. Using a "USB 2.0 to Ethernet" adapter, you can turn it into a router/firewall, serving up web pages, proxy, IDS, file/print sharing etc.

Something like:
USB 1: USB to Ethernet adapter for WAN
USB 2: External HDD 1
USB 3: External HDD 2
USB 4: Multifunctional Printer (Linux compatible)
Ethernet Connection: For LAN

Use something like webmin or Ebox to remotely administer the box. (no need for keyboard or mouse)...It should apply to the MythTV idea as well, allowing you to put 3 or four capture USB capture devices...Record 4 streams of video at once? Now that sounds interesting!


One other interest could be clustering...Imagine a whole bunch of PS3 in a massive computing cluster? (Its much more economical than getting a Cell-based PCI-Express "accelerator" card).


My only worry is how open is Sony gonna be in regards to Linux and PS3. Will we be able to access all its hardware? Or is it just the USB, etc connections and the Cell CPU?

If its completely open, I suspect you'll probably get a growing community of enthusiasts going with the PS3 over time. (as price falls)...As its easier to have Linux on that than the Xbox 360. (as MS have done things to it, that clearly indicate they don't want people screwing around with that).

Of course, this lays into another thing. Since Sony and IBM are opening up the dev tools for the Cell, we'll very likely see a growth of potential devs who know how to make the thing work to their advantage (exploit the potential of the Cell)...Which could possibly lead to a career in applications for Cell processor based solutions.

I guess this all depends on how Sony handles all this...Time will tell.


RE: will it play the games
By FITCamaro on 10/19/2006 11:27:40 AM , Rating: 2
Well actually I just meant use it to view the TV, not record it.


RE: will it play the games
By Jkm3141 on 10/21/2006 12:05:16 AM , Rating: 2
all good ideas. However you hardly need a Cell processor and RSX (G71) to do Media Center stuff. Use it for a database server lol.


Problems
By Trisped on 10/19/2006 11:00:41 AM , Rating: 2
1) you are limited to software that runs on Linux. Sure there is a good collection, but I wonder if there is more that runs on Apple then Linux.

2) you are limited to software that can be recompiled to run on the crazy cell processor

3) you have to find compilers to recompile the software to run on the cell processor

4) you have to know how to compile software

5) your "pc" has limited hard drive space. My portable laptop HD has 120GB of space, compared to the PS3's 20/60GB

6) no internal expansion ports (you do have USB though...)

7) Limited RAM.

8) CPU has 7-8 cores, which means you need to have some deeply threaded applications to get a good amount of work out of it (but since the only games you will be playing are made for the system, very few would be limited by this)

9) CPU has little to no preprocessing, so processor efficiency will be very low.

There are other problems too, all of which stem from the fact that while this is a computer, it is not a PC. Even Apple has admitted that the PC is the only way to go for your personal computing needs.




RE: Problems
By Trisped on 10/19/2006 11:25:37 AM , Rating: 3
Oh, and every time a new gen of consoles come out they talk about "with all this power, PC gaming will be dead." Of course the old consoles have a large library, so PC games aren't selling well. Then new games stop coming out for the old consoles and no one has money to buy a new console, so they buy the games on PC.

As history will show, new consoles are great for PCs, as people will often rather spend an additional $200-300 on a PC then buy a new consol. The PS3 is no different, except the fans will think it is so cool and buy it for the additional functionality, only to find themselves left out in the cold like the dream cast after the PS2 came out.


RE: Problems
By shamgar03 on 10/19/2006 1:29:29 PM , Rating: 2
First off I am a big fan of PC gaming, HOWEVER, I am a big fan of linux as well, so this excites me. If this came out well, I would actually be willing to throw my lot in with the PS3, in my opinion this is the best news that sony has had in a year. Now for some your Problems:
1. There is tons of software for linux, see sourceforge.net and other linux sites.
2. Umm not a problem, gcc man
3. see 2 and the article
4. Meh, it IS a problem, but any good distro will help you out a great deal and I would bet yellow dog makes this a priority
5. External Hadrives, if this is done right...
6,7 don't really need to be THAT upgradeable as long as it can do stuff like webbrowsing and wordprocessing.
8. Linux is a big OS for servers and the Cell will probobly be used primarily in servers etc, it won't be long before good compilers and optimizations are made for linux to accommodate cell.
9. Not sure whawt you mean by preprocessing. Preprocessing you do before you compile something. Do you mean pipelines? Regardless if the people behind cell work well with the linux community, maybe the Cell might ACTUALLY be worthwhile after all.


RE: Problems
By Jkm3141 on 10/21/2006 5:46:43 PM , Rating: 2
Gotta remember its not like 256MB of normal ram. The memory in the PS3 is lightning fast. Which is better 2GB Of PC100 SDRAM or 512MB of DDR2-1066 for example?


RE: Problems
By Trisped on 10/23/2006 3:06:29 PM , Rating: 2
In this case it is not the type or speed of RAM that is important, but the amount. If you are running games, and know you will never need more then 512, then faster RAM is going to give you a big boost. But, if you run a game or piece of software (like image editing, CAD, or movie stuff) that uses more then 512MB of memory then the extra will be saved to the hard drive. Then, every time data is requested that is saved on the hard drive you have to wait for the hard drive to seek (find it and move the head to it) and write some of the RAM to the hard drive so it can seek again and read what it needs into RAM (the max read speed I have heard of is 72MB/s on a raptor which is nothing compared to the 2GBs you can get from RAM. Since Sony is trying to keep it cheep, and using low density drives, I expect the max speed to be much less then 40MB/s and write speeds are even slower). Then the info has to be read from RAM and sent back to the processor. And what are you doing at this time? Actually waiting. There is a very noticeable lag when running off the hard drive in which you will contemplate the reason you do not have more RAM in there and how to get some more. Oh wait, we were talking about a PS3, so I hope you never, ever, need more then 512MB of RAM.



RE: Problems
By Trisped on 10/23/2006 3:38:40 PM , Rating: 2
Yes, there is "tons" of software for Linux, and there is "tons" of software for MacOSX and Windows. But the "tons" is not the same. I have not seen any real numbers, but I bet that for every 1 Linux piece of software there are 10 Windows pieces. There is also the issue of functionality. You can find some cool stuff for Linux, but it is normally easier to find the same stuff for Windows and the Windows stuff often times has a more complete set of options.

Most gamers and HTPC fans are not going to have the know how to find the software they want, get the source code and libraries needed to compile it, get a compiler, and compile it to run on the PS3. These people will be limited to the 5-100 pieces of software that the Mod community will make for the PS3. While there will be a good amount, it is in no way "tons."

If all you needed was web browsing and word processing then you could keep the $500 computer you bought 6 years ago, because it does all that and you already paid for it.

I have many friends with computers, and only one computer used by all of them is used as a server, and even that is limited to Team Speak and web content severing. The server software you are talking of would not be useful for 99.9% of PC users, let a lone the relatively few owners of a PS3. The original point of my comment was not that applications can not be threaded, or that applications will not be threaded. After all, there are many supper computers made up of hundreds and thousands of processors. The point was most home software is written for 1 processor, maybe 2-4 if you are dealing with newer games or audio/video. That means you are running at 1/8 the total power of the processor, which is very slow compared to other $600 computers (which come with monitors, keyboards, and a mouse).

A preprocessor is part of a x86 CPU that reads the in coming code and tries to predict where the next "goto" command will take it. This is important because processors have "pipe lines." Pipe lines allow processors to go faster by dividing the work between many stages. Each stage takes one clock cycle of the processor to complete. There are many commands that only happen if set conditions are met, like goto commands in loops or if/then statements. Since the processor doesn't know where these commands are going till it has finished processing the request it keeps working till it gets the result. If it was suppose to jump somewhere else, all the work started while the goto command was being processed is lost. By predicting where the code will go, that code will be fed into the processor, allowing it to continue working on relevant info rather then stuff that will be thrown away. The cell and XBox360 processors don't have preprocessors, so they will have noticeably slower results in a program with many conditional goto commands. And lets face it, all modern programs use goto commands very heavily.

So what does this mean? If you have a PS3, and if you don't have a computer, and if you have the know how, and if you have the desire, you can make your PS3 into a computer. Otherwise don't waste you time.


RE: Problems
By ZmaxDP on 10/19/2006 1:48:34 PM , Rating: 3
I can tell you one thing, I imagine it could do a pretty good turn at rendering a Viz scene. I'm curious to see Anandtech get a hold of one and run some benchmarks on it.

On the other hand, with graphics cards finally starting to support other types of processing on them (ATI's folding support) it might not be that far from offloading similar tasks to the GPU. Now that would be an interesting comparison... Should I buy a $600 graphics card for my computer and get all the gaming functionality AND a boost to my processing power for certain applications, OR should I ge t a PS3 and use it similarly?

Hmm hmm hmm...


RE: Problems
By Trisped on 10/23/2006 3:43:39 PM , Rating: 2
I think it would also be cool to get some benchmarks from AnandTech on what the PS3 can do with web browsing, word processing, and higher end stuff. Then compare it to a $300-600 computer. Include stuff like with GPU off loading and without, simple home user apps, web browsing, ease of use, audio/video, etc.


What console fanboys tend to forget is..
By Dfere on 10/19/2006 1:04:16 PM , Rating: 1
The absolute lack of upgradeability. Sure, you can add on stuff, but this is not what I am discussing. Even if the PS3 gives better bang for the buck upon release (and I say IF), how many years is it until the next build? You think a cell with integrated video is going to be anywhere near current one year after release in the $1000 or so computer market... ? 3 Years... 5 years? Xbox360 games now lag behind current gen titles in terms of quality. Wait until DX10.

You can certainly say it will be a fun purchase, and we all like the concept of instant on, non-compromiseable computing (espcially if you have kids), and I will even go so far to say it may take the place of a second, or kids computer. But that is it.




RE: What console fanboys tend to forget is..
By xbdestroya on 10/19/2006 2:08:31 PM , Rating: 2
You're looking at gaming in terms of graphics alone rather than gaming in terms of gaming; for example, the games I play on consoles simply do not come out for the PC.

As far as upgradeablity goes, I think we all know how much money the PC gaming hobby ends up costing us year over year. So although on a visual prowess level I think the PC easily takes the cake for being able to offer more, most of the time, it doesn't come cheap.

Frankly I see PS3 as a sort of Amiga/C64 concept revival, and damn if I wasn't fond of those days.


RE: What console fanboys tend to forget is..
By Fenixgoon on 10/20/06, Rating: 0
By Jkm3141 on 10/21/2006 12:12:46 AM , Rating: 2
I cannot understand people that say the RSX in the PS3 is totally amazing. It's Just a G71 (7900 series) clocked at 550 MHz. Nothing that fancy. The R500 in the Xbox 360 is something to talk about. It's a Halfway design between DX9 and DX10 (unified shaders but from what I can tell not full fledged DX10) and also introduces many revolutionary things such as the Embedded eDRAM for AA with little performance effects. The good thing about consoles is you can implement features that you normally can't do to a PC due to lack of support, just look at the PhysX. If the PhysX was built into the PS3 or Xbox 360 it would gain a lot more support.

Your points about PC gaming are 100% true and I agree. People get the thought in their mind that they need a 1500-3000 dollar SLI, Quad Core, and 4GB of ram to play PC games. You Really don't. A midrange Graphics card is perfectly acceptable. My old X800 Pro AGP is doing just fine thank you at most games (granted medium quality at some due to 1GB of ram).

PC Games do devalue fast, you have a good reputable point there.

However, Linux is a good enough Operating system to support a USB Keyboard and mouse (not exactly new technology, even if PS2 is better IMHO). Somehow I think a distribution of Linux that is designed for the PS3 will manage to support the only way a keyboard and mouse can connect to it, USB. Saying it won't is just ignorant.


RE: What console fanboys tend to forget is..
By bokep on 10/19/06, Rating: 0
RE: What console fanboys tend to forget is..
By Ringold on 10/19/2006 5:17:29 PM , Rating: 3
I still have to defend the OP; it'll be a good replacement for a media center PC or a childs PC, but not an utter replacement of any kind.

Regarding games; there's a lot of PC games that will never be released to console, too, you know. Considering my last couple days have disappeared in to Space Empires V, something that is far too deep and with low volume sales for the console crowd, I think that much is clear. Strategy games wouldn't exist in the console space in general. If they did, I can't imagine playing them without the scores of controls a keyboard allows me to instantly input, saving on micromanagement time.

Regarding hardware; this gets beat to death every time, but for a little over half the cost of a PS3 in Dec or Jan a mid-range upgrade could be purchased that would play games on the PC at similar resolutions and have a similar lifespan. Sure, bleeding-edge games wont be able to be played at the same old resolutions, but those same bleeding edge games would have visual effects impossible for either systems hardware to render. Then at least the PC customer has the option to upgrade again, where as the console gamer gets nothing. Not to mention everything else a PC is good at, and its expandability.

If you buy consoles, it's just not for any of the above reasons, it's for simplicity and ease, ie, making it a good childrens computer, light gaming machine, and media center, but not a fully functional PC. Debating the OP on that is more or less futile.


RE: What console fanboys tend to forget is..
By dwalton on 10/19/2006 7:25:02 PM , Rating: 3
you are funny, I give you that. I run a 9600 pro that I bought ages ago. I can play just about any game the pc market has released, but just not at the same quality of graphics of the newer cards.

If I want to play any new future games then I can simply upgrade with a MSI NX7600GS-TD256 Geforce 7600GS 256MB 128-bit GDDR2 AGP 4X/8X Video Card for 124.00, that just as capable of displaying as much graphical fidelty as the GPU in the PS3 and be set for the next 2.5 years.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82...

Upgrading and maintaining a cutting edge PC is a lot of money yet pc gaming is not.

The PC game market is pretty small compared to consoles. However, PCs outnumber consoles a 1000 to 1. The reason? PC are more than games and the PS3 can not replicate that simply by throwing linux on it.

Comparing the PS3 to a PC is like comparing a 4 wheel ATV to a 4 wheel drive truck. You both, can drive around in the mud and yee haw with best of them. But just because you put a license plate on ATV doesn't mean everyone is going to find it viable to use it to commute to work.


By Ringold on 10/19/2006 9:14:44 PM , Rating: 2
9600 Pro was a sweet card, too, and your right, still is. I had one, and she gave me a nice OC without any extra cooling. Got an X800XL for now, which I bought on a firesale for $180 by pretending to be a corporate buyer not long after its release. I can play all the big boy games, typically at 16x12 without eyecandy (which is still better than consoles, thanks to the res), or lower resolutions with nice IQ things cranked up.

In Feb, I'll get me whatever the top-notch mainstream 190-250 dollar vid card is, and it'll produce better output for same lifetime as a $600 console. :)

I love that analogy, ATV vs truck. About sums it up, but dont tell Sony marketing that I suppose.


By Jkm3141 on 10/21/2006 12:15:41 AM , Rating: 2
Somehow 600 Dollars for a Computer with a Cell Processor, some of the fastest memory access possible, and a good graphics processor seems like a great deal to me. Even 5 years down the road when the PS3 will be priced at 300 dollars (knowing Sony it wont go lower than that ever) will be worth it. Cell processor is a Powerhouse just waiting to be unlocked. Go take a look at the prices of servers based on the Cell and get back to me about how its not worth it. (I believe IBM has made a few announcements and actually launched server lines based on Cell a few weeks ago).


Wow...
By edpsx on 10/19/2006 9:20:25 AM , Rating: 1
That really helps make the PS3 worth the price IMO. You'd pay that much for a computer of this quality easy.




RE: Wow...
By jackalsmith on 10/19/2006 9:32:12 AM , Rating: 2
how much does the "deluxe" ps3 cost?


RE: Wow...
By jackalsmith on 10/19/2006 9:33:44 AM , Rating: 2
oops

The 20GB will retail for $499 in the US (59800 yen in Japan, 499 euros in Europe), and the 60GB model will retail for $599 (open price in Japan, 599 euros in Europe). Sony expects to ship two million units in its first month of launch, four million by the end of the year, and six million by the end of its fiscal year, which ends in March 31.


RE: Wow...
By UNCjigga on 10/19/2006 9:46:40 AM , Rating: 2
So Sony finally found something that can harness the full power of Cell...distributed computing!!! :)


RE: Wow...
By tuteja1986 on 10/19/2006 11:18:52 AM , Rating: 1
Get ready because this is going to be the biggest mistake sony does :)
*hackers will be jumping up and down with joy
*Adware,Trojan,Virus maker will laugh and start making them for the poor machine connect online
*Linux community will rejoice and start giving total support to sony :)
Angery/Sad bit :
*Gamedeveloper will be cursing sony
*Dell , HP , Apple and will be supper pissed off

Now Microsoft if your reading :
*Can you please change your License agreement crap , make it more userfriendly :(
*Get rid of the Microsoft Advantage
*Reduce the cost of Vista



RE: Wow...
By xbdestroya on 10/19/2006 11:55:21 AM , Rating: 2
Hackers won't be able to do much to effect the PS3's performance as Linux will be running as a layer on top of the XMB OS, which users cannot access directly. Linus will be 'sandboxed' and run just as any other PS3 application would.

IMO this is great news by the way - I'm definitely stoked about hooking PS3 up to a PC monitor now. (supposedly supports custom resolutions through the HDMI as well)


RE: Wow...
By bokep on 10/19/06, Rating: -1
wait a sec
By inthell on 10/19/2006 11:55:31 AM , Rating: 2
so you guys are saying the PS3 has a built in HD-TV Tuner? WTH!




RE: wait a sec
By inthell on 10/19/2006 11:58:38 AM , Rating: 2
or would you just hookup a USB TV tuner, but i have doubts that would work


RE: wait a sec
By Trisped on 10/19/2006 12:14:57 PM , Rating: 2
USB, and it would work if you could get software to support it (and Sony made the USB drivers right unlike with the PS2).


The most interesting part
By smitty3268 on 10/19/2006 10:30:20 AM , Rating: 3
isn't that it's using Firefox or OpenOffice, but that the default desktop is E17 rather than a more typical GNOME or KDE desktop. Probably due to concerns over limited memory.




RE: The most interesting part
By Jkm3141 on 10/21/2006 5:48:57 PM , Rating: 2
Gnome has no problems fitting in that small amount of ram. I've run Fedora core 2 perfectly fine on a 266 MHz Pentium 2 with 128MB of ram. Full GNOME'ness. However KDE is the culprit known to me to be running 800-900MB of ram sitting there idle (2GB total ram in my system). Thats worse than vista.


.
By hans007 on 10/19/2006 12:17:59 PM , Rating: 2
Finally something good about the PS3. I don't get how sony was able to make a business case for allowing easy to install linux on the ps3 though.

So in theory , some guy could buy a ps3 at $599 (well whenever its easy to get in stores) never buy any games (so sony can never recover the $400 they lose per unit) and just play blueray disks and run linux the entire time.




RE: .
By akugami on 10/20/2006 7:41:04 PM , Rating: 2
My question exactly. Now...people can argue about the lack of Linux based games but we all realize that it is not out of the realm of impossibility for there to be some sort of emulation going on that would allow PC games to run on the PS3.

There are also many who would be buying these to run Linux and FOSS based software such as 3d rendering, graphics apps, distributed computing, etc. and never have any intention of buying Blu-Ray movies or buying any PS3 games.

Now, I know that it will be a very minor segment that will buy the PS3 exclusively for Linux but Sony stands to potentially lose tens of thousands and maybe hundreds of thousands on this with no chance of ever recouping that cost through peripherals and games sales.


NO SUBJECT
By Visual on 10/19/2006 9:27:51 AM , Rating: 1
on the topic - i thought some linux distro was supposed to even come preinstalled on the ps3 hdd. guess that idea fell out?
got any data on performance, or can you find some for us? it would be really interesting to see this, though i guess we'd have to wait for after launch...

minor gripe:
"...make installation and breeze" ?
you mean, it blows? or how else it makes breeze?
yeah, its "a" instead of "and", small mistake. but fix it anyway.

major gripe:
ok since you dont have a proper "site feedback" link, i'll post here :p and then noone will notice this and nothing will be done about it... but anyway
you need to fix your post comment forms - first of all remove the "on load set focus to subject" crap as it annoys me to have the focus moved after i've already started typing my comment (yes, the page really finishes loading after i start typing); second, put tabindexes on the subject and body fields so i can tab from one to the other without having to go through the formatting buttons (yes, i do prefer to use the keyboard for stuff like that instead of the mouse); another bug is when "please enter your comment subject" prompt is shown and you enter a subject and try to click a button, that prompt disappears in the blur event and so the buttons shift up and you end up clicking below them; lastly i don't even see why the subject has to be required, why the post form is on a page where you can't see the original article or thread you're commenting on, why you have no new post subscription, search or notification, why we should go through a preview step, why we keep getting "oops!"es every so often... and yes that too - why you have no feedback form where i can post stuff like this instead of cluttering a completely innocent and unrelated thread.




RE: NO SUBJECT
By Trisped on 10/19/2006 11:08:04 AM , Rating: 2
I disagree with everything except:
quote:
why the post form is on a page where you can't see the original article or thread you're commenting on, why you have no new post subscription, search or notification, why we should go through a preview step, why we keep getting


If the subject focus is a problem, write your post in Word, then copy past it.

Feed back should be sent to Kris at his email address (as he seems to be the major person behind DT).

I don't like the timer on the pages. I go to all the work of writing a comment, hit preview, and end up at the error page because I took too long. If I refresh and submit the page is ok, but my text disappears after the refresh so I have to copy past it before or I will lose it.

I would also like something that tells you if a post you made has been replied to, and the preview to be placed above the body box, so you have to scroll past it before you can get to the post comment button. I never preview even though I have to hit the button because it is off the bottom of the window and I don't want to scroll down.


Render PC's useless? I think not.
By Hakuryu on 10/19/2006 11:40:23 AM , Rating: 2
While I do see the capabilites of a PS3 along with a PC operating system as interesting, I doubt it will render PC's useless.

The flexibility of a PC is simply far superior to any 'complete' PC-like product, except maybe to casual PC users that buy a Dell and only surf and email. I highly doubt you will have anywhere near the options for software as a traditional PC, and your hardware will be limited to highly overpriced proprietary equipment. When I see a 20GB Xbox hard drive for $100 it just makes me laugh.

Maybe I'm in the minority as a hobbyist PC builder, programmer, artist, and map/game designer, but I can't see myself ever willing to trade my PC's flexibility for better visuals.




By peternelson on 10/19/2006 9:08:28 PM , Rating: 1
At least the PS3 will be a "proper" computer, rather than the OLPC (one laptop per child) cheapo one.

This system will be far more flexible, performance etc.

Rather than sell OLPC they should make it ONE PS3 PER FAMILY.

In bulk I guess the price could come under $500 with the linux. And since developing nations often have big families with many kids, the overall price would be similar based on a family of 5 kids.

Plus they could play games on it ;-)


what were these guys thinking?....
By ChugokuOtaku on 10/19/2006 9:25:09 AM , Rating: 1
it's like... did they even bother to consult with their Vaio department before making such a bold statement?




RE: what were these guys thinking?....
By aguilpa1 on 10/19/06, Rating: -1
By Jkm3141 on 10/21/2006 5:52:33 PM , Rating: 2
Agreed, most people don't realize the possibilities of this. Linux is very modular and easy to adapt things to. Oh the program you want to use isn't pre-compiled for Cell? I guess ill just have to recompile it from the almost guarantee available source code. People who want to do real things on Linux on PS3 will be the people who know how to recompile a simple program from source.


Wow Indeed
By aguilpa1 on 10/19/2006 9:27:37 AM , Rating: 2
I was just keeping track of the cell technology as a point of interest, now I may get one myself. My mind is racing with the possibilities for this bad boy.....(vrooom)




PVR?
By justinf on 10/19/2006 9:48:01 AM , Rating: 2
I wonderer if there will be a front end for myth TV. I just might have to buy more then one for my house if thats the case.




The PC Dead?
By superunknown98 on 10/19/2006 11:05:51 AM , Rating: 2
While quite interesting, I really fail to see the relevance, to the average or even tech minded consumer. For far less it is possible to buy a desktop PC with almost three times the storage capacity, a dvd burner and with a easier to use interface. Yes the cell processor might be a bit speedier, but with the advent of quad core processors, and more cores on the way, it seems like a premature statment.I wouldn't call the PC dead or worthless yet.




Are they making a profit on the H/W?
By SimonB on 10/19/2006 12:08:27 PM , Rating: 2
I thought the general business model for console manufacturers was to make their money on the games? If the PS3 is too attractive to homebrewers, then Sony could find themselves subsidizing a whole lot of media centers for consumers....




Software...
By edge929 on 10/19/2006 12:09:32 PM , Rating: 2
You can have a 100-core processor but it'll act just like a single core processor unless the software is programmed to take advantage of those extra cells. It's probably safe to assume that the majority of all PS3 games will take advantage of (at least) 7 cores on the Cell but a current port of a Linux program to the PS3 won't utilize all cores unless it's rewritten specifically for the PS3. This is the same reason why I won't be buying a quad-core processor early next year.




DRM
By gramboh on 10/19/2006 2:15:42 PM , Rating: 2
This is only useful if there is no DRM and it has the functionality of a modded Xbox (Xbox Media Centre -- as said the only limitation is not bein able to play back HD due to Xbox not having enough power).

I want to be able to browse network shares and play any type of media that way. If it doesn't have that, it's useless.




Linux on PS
By wallijonn on 10/19/2006 5:01:37 PM , Rating: 2
Couldn't the PS2 also do Linux? And where did that lead? Absolutely no where.




Great for simulation!
By Goty on 10/19/2006 11:48:40 PM , Rating: 2
I am definitley going to screw around with my galaxy simulations on this thing if I ever get enough money to buy one. The Cell processor is perfectly suited to the kind of computations (i.e. large numbers of simple computations). I'd be in heaven if someone came up with a build where I could make a cluster of PS3s.




Bout Time
By Saist on 10/20/2006 1:51:24 AM , Rating: 1
Bout Time Sony did this. Looks like somebody at Sony bothered to read my advice on Gamenikki.com




No thanks!
By Hydrofirex on 10/19/06, Rating: -1
"It seems as though my state-funded math degree has failed me. Let the lashings commence." -- DailyTech Editor-in-Chief Kristopher Kubicki











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