LinuxSA Mailing list archives

  From: <dmdeflui@subcorp.com.au>
  To  : <linuxsa@linuxsa.org.au>
  Date: Fri, 31 May 2002 15:25:14 +0930

RE: Linux on Xbox (or playstation)

If I were cynical, I'd think that Sony hired a bunch of open source Linux
Pro geeks to write the playstations OS, and then decided as a money spin off
to say they support open source and sell kits to let people access their own
source code!!!!!

Regards,
Dez
	-----Original Message-----
	From:	Thiele, Nicholas Wayne - THINW002
[SMTP:THINW002@students.unisa.edu.au]
	Sent:	Friday, May 31, 2002 3:20 PM
	To:	'Dale Long'
	Cc:	Linux (E-mail)
	Subject:	RE: Linux on Xbox (or playstation)


	If this is true they could have thought of worse ways to further
their market
	penetration!  

	Looking at these sites
	-http://www.technology.scee.net/cgi-bin/scee/scee.pl?ps2linux,
	http://au.playstation.com/technology/linuxkit.jhtml I am optamistic
and believe
	that they (Sony) do truely wish to encourage open source
developement.  They
	seem to have really put some effort in to allowing full open source
use of the
	PS2 hardware.  It also seems that there is no way that the kit can
be used to
	facilitate piracy (is this what you were talking about impairing the
market?).
	I am sure that they don't feel the developers (who the $500 kit is
aimed at)
	represent a substantial market for propietry games.  Even if the
kits did
	result in some top games (which would be great), Sony would either
profit from
	increased development kit sales (which could be just as profitable
as propietry
	games sales) or from sales of a port to the original system.

	Either way they are promoting open source and providing some decent
hardware to
	play with.

	Good to hear your thoughts,

	Nick



	-----Original Message-----
	From: Dale Long [mailto:dalel@picknowl.com.au]
	Sent: Thursday, 30 May 2002 11:24 AM
	To: Thiele, Nicholas Wayne - THINW002
	Cc: Linux (E-mail); 'd_delyn@eml.cc'; Mark Wetton
	Subject: Re: Linux on Xbox (or playstation)


	Thiele, Nicholas Wayne - THINW002 wrote:
	> I agree, I'd also rather support a company that officially
supports Linux and
	> show them that there is a market for this.  If you do (or anyone
on the list)
	> get a Linux kit let us know how you find it, I am sure everyone
will be
	> interested. 

	Is it possible that Sony are only using 'the current perceived rage'

	(ie: Linux) to further their 'grand scheme' and market penetration?
And 
	then ultimately not honour the 'Linux spirit', by not allowing any 
	useful development for PS2 Linux? That is, using it as just a
marketing 
	ploy with no real delivery. Ultimately, OSS games on Linux would 
	potentially impair the market for commercial DMCA copy protected 
	software. Is it possible to have both an open platform run in a
useful 
	manner on the PS2 (or Xbox etc...) AND control the market and
restrict 
	copying and piracy?

	Just a few thoughts.

	Dale.

	> http://www.linuxworld.com.au/news.php3?nid=1451&tid=2 - Article
about Linux
	PS2
	> kit in Australia.
	> 
	> PS. When I first brought up the subject of Linux on Playstation
someone
	brought
	> up this interesting idea!
	> 
	> "*imagines an ISP running solely on PlayStation II's*"
	>  -David Lloyd [lloy0076@rebel.net.au]
	> 
	> -----Original Message-----
	> From: dcd [mailto:d_delyn@eml.cc]
	> Sent: Wednesday, 29 May 2002 17:36
	> To: linuxsa@linuxsa.org.au
	> Cc: linuxsa@linuxsa.org.au
	> Subject: Re: Linux on Xbox
	> 
	> 
	> I agree,
	> 
	>     I'd prefer to pay Sony, for the PS/2 who are prepared to
officially 
	> support linux than Microsoft for another xbox to support their
sales. ie 
	> Every sale to one side, is one less for the other.
	> Why else do you think their prepared to support a loss?
	> 
	> For someone who is into games and has a P/S already the $499 AU is
a 
	> fairly cheap way of getting a  reasonable starting computer, the
fact 
	> that they then start with linux, instead of having to be
enlightened 
	> (substitute any other suitable word ),  is a major bonus in favour
of this.
	> 
	> dcd
	> 
	> 
	> Anthony Symons wrote:
	> 
	> 
	>>On Tue, 2002-05-28 at 13:42, John Edwards wrote:
	>>
	>>
	>>>What's more interesting are some of the mod chips coming out for
the
	>>>microsoft Xbox. It already has hard drive and Ethernet for
something
	>>>like $399, and one of the xbox hacker groups has discovered a
backdoor
	>>>bios hook to allow it to load arbitrary x86 code.
	>>>
	>>>In English, that means there's a strong possibility that it will
be able
	>>>to run Linux, despite all the crypto requirements for booting the
OS.
	>>>
	>>
	>>Hmm. Paying microsoft for hardware to run linux on? Even if it
does save
	>>you money Im not sure if I like that idea :(
	>>
	>>Ant
	>>
	> 
	> 
	> 
	> 




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