[thechat] Linux on Playstation 2

Kevin Stevens kjs at ratking.co.uk
Thu Feb 7 17:19:16 CST 2002


Anyone who doesn't delete my mails as soon as they see my name will know
that I am immersing myself in the Way of the Penguin, and somebody kindly
sent me this information that may be of interest to all you other Linux
people out there...

<snip 1>
Many thanks for expressing your interest in Linux(for PlayStation 2) on
our website (http://www.technology.scee.net/).

We're happy to announce that Linux will be released in May in both the
USA (SCEA) and PAL territories (including Europe and Australia), with
full information and screenshots now to be found on our site.

In addition, a joint website for interested users has been set up at
http://playstation2-linux.com, which includes discussion and bulletin
boards.

Finally, although sales haven't yet started, if you send an e-mail with
the message "subscribe" to ps2linux-request at technology.scee.net we'll
let you know when pre-ordering starts.

Many thanks again,

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe

</snip 1>

<snip 2>
Some more info:

"An interesting article about Sony's upcoming Linux distro for the PS2 and
some intellectual property concerns some people have with it. It looks at
how Sony limits the ability to have full access to the system, yet being
able to keep it under GPL."

The article: http://www.execpc.com/~halkun/PS2/

Short version - The PS2 Linux doesn't expose any of the hardware APIs and
keeps restrictions on the use of the hardware (regions, etc), by using an
intermediate software layer for Linux to plug into, that hides the actual
hardware from the OS.


The story on Slashdot.org (with comments):
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/02/04/0427233&mode=thread

</snip 2>

Kevin Stevens
kjs at ratking.co.uk




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