[advocacy] Sony going for Linux?

[Bacchus Thirteen]

--- Daniel James <daniel at mondodesigno.com> wrote:

> I think it's fair to say that the PS2 Linux project
> isn't as open as 
> it could be - I believe there are restrictions on
> creating bootable 
> CD's, for example.
>  
> > Could Sony give up the
> > contents and go for the hardware selling rather
> than
> > the soft?
> 
> I understand that consoles are generally sold around
> cost price, and 
> all the profit is on game titles. In the case of the
> X-Box I believe 
> MS is making a substantial loss on each machine
> sold, so I think MS 
> looks more desperate here.

Yes, I think you are right.  That is why MS had been
specialized in only software...   They are not
expecting to make money through selling hard but soft
in expense of the hardware.  It is rather ironical to
see Microsoft has to build the machine to enter the
gaming software market. 

> If Sony have a rival in
> this market it is 
> the Nintendo Game Cube, according to my game-playing
> friend.

I am not into games, either but many economic papers
point out that it is not the case: Nintendo wants to
secure their market for kids while Sony and Microsoft
aiming at kidalts.

> I expect the idea of the Linux developers kit for
> the PS2 is to help 
> create a Linux DVD, which allows you to do PC-like
> internet stuff, 
> including playing music. For a PS2 without an
> external hard disk, 
> that means playing streamed music only I guess. As
> it only has 32MB 
> RAM (I think), I suppose we should be thinking in
> terms of PDA-like 
> functionality.

I am not sure about the spec of PS 2 but 32 is not the
case, I think.  Even Nintendo produced a 64 MB ram
machine in the previous generation, hence the name
Nintendo 64 and it helped to boost the selling of
SDRAM in Asia Pacific Area.  However, I agree with you
that Sony wants to have OS for the net.  You also
point out the possibility of 'streamed music.'  Could
it be contents-protected ATRAC (3) or is there a
slight possilbility of their using Ogg?  If it is
ATRAC, or any other contents-protected format, (I
think this is the case), the project itself has no
attraction.  For not so many programmers would be
interested in being a plumber for Sony to sell
contents-protected music and games.

Any way, many can agree with the point that Sony may
go for Linux but it is too gigantic to go for
open-source, I think.  DVD and stremed music with the
most popular console is interesting but our question
here is that it should be judged by how open they
could be.

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