Game Over For Sony and Open Source? [Slashdot]

[DP ServBot]

Glyn Moody writes "Sony has never been much of a friend to hackers, and its infamous rootkit showed what it thought of users. But by omitting the option to install GNU/Linux on its new PS3, it has removed the final reason for the open source world to care about Sony. Unless, of course, you find Google's new distribution alliance with Sony to pre-install Chrome on its PCs exciting in some way."http://games.slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&op=image&style=h0&sid=09/09/02/1645213 (http://games.slashdot.org/story/09/09/02/1645213/Game-Over-For-Sony-and-Open-Source?from=rss)
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[kai123]

Honestly I don't know many people that cared to begin with. It was just a very underpowered linux machine. If someone cares that much buy the fat ps3.

[BHvrd]

I used Linux on PS3 once...... once.

http://www.imfdb.org/images/thumb/3/3d/88mag.jpg/400px-88mag.jpg

[kupomogli]

I looked it up online because I was interested. After finding out from various sources that it wouldn't ever run at any sortof manageable speed, I didn't even bother. Why when I have a computer in the same room that runs probably 1000 times faster than what the PS3 would pull off with Linux installed?

[Icarus Moonsight]

Why does Linux run so slow on a PS3? I thought it was a super-computer... Or is the Linux PS3 kernel the culprit? Open source quality depends on demand and interest. Maybe there just wasn't enough of either to generate an optimization? C'mon, someone up it with the skinny here. Please? I'm curious, and that is torture. :/

[kedawa]

The option to install another OS was used primarily for supercomputer clusters.
One PS3 by itself does not make a super computer. In fact, a single PS3 is underpowered compared to even a budget PC.

[Kuros]

Why does Linux run so slow on a PS3? I thought it was a super-computer... Or is the Linux PS3 kernel the culprit? Open source quality depends on demand and interest. Maybe there just wasn't enough of either to generate an optimization? C'mon, someone up it with the skinny here. Please? I'm curious, and that is torture. :/

It has very little in the way of RAM.

[garagesaleking!!]

i doubt sony will lose business over this

[kupomogli]

Why does Linux run so slow on a PS3? I thought it was a super-computer... Or is the Linux PS3 kernel the culprit? Open source quality depends on demand and interest. Maybe there just wasn't enough of either to generate an optimization? C'mon, someone up it with the skinny here. Please? I'm curious, and that is torture. :/

The GPU is locked out which is why it runs slow. Programming Ace said that if Sony, or someone, was to create a driver to utilize it, then it could be used. Until that happens, which it probably won't, then Linux will just be a useless feature.

It'd probably run no faster than a single core model computer you can get at the store even if the GPU was usable.

[kaedesdisciple]

Meh, it still had its uses. A cluster of a few hundred was used to perform a famous MD5 collision attack.

[Icarus Moonsight]

GPU lock-out and minimal RAM? I can see that being a major hurdle. Ok guys, thank yous all 'round. :D