PS3 Slim and why Linux is gone.

August 22nd, 2009, 15:20 Posted By: wraggster

Since PS3 Slim was officially announced at Gamescon, we have known that the Linux option has been deleted from that new hardware, and well, after the wtf time, we decided to look back to the past and see what's behind us, so we could find an answer for this strange decision.

First of all, answering some e-mails, the absence of Linux (OtherOS) option is _not_ a software thing, but a hardware removal, a specific hardware that selects directly a different booting sequence. Let's take a look, then, to our past:

- PlayStation 2 was released 4th of March of 2000 in Japan, and it was since April 1999 when the rumours were starting, just like all those other consoles in our history.

- PlayStation 2 "Slim" (or V12 or SCPH-70000) was released on September 2004, and it was, indeed slimmer and thiner.

So, we have a PS2 that can work with Linux, but when Slim option was released, an specific package that was released, a "Linux Kit" was no longer usable, even though this "kit" was created in order to standardize and to make official the GNU/Linux Option for PlayStation 2.

This kit consisted on a HD of 40GB, an Ethernet adapter, a mouse and an USB-kb, as well as an VGA cable and a defined GNU/Linux OS for PS2. As you might remember, even a dedicated distro was released in order to help programming, called Black Rhino, but well, let's continue.

- PlayStation 3 was released on 11st of November of 2006 in Japan, preceded by all those rumours, once again.

- PlayStation 3 "Slim" was announced this 18th of August of 2009, slimmer, thiner, ... and without Linux.

So, it would be probably that the next step is that PlayStation 3 "Linux Kit" is released in the future. This would indeed solve this problem, and it would allow them to make all this official, even though it might be needed for IBM to co-operate on this so the Cell SDK is again updated and it's available for it.

But, if we take a look at the new Slim model, we can go to some conclusions:

- New and more powerful CPU. 45nm Cell-based, and it's said to be faster, cooler and, indeed, powerful. What could be done with this? More efficient apps, and, if we could wish for something, what about that software retro-compatibility with PS2, now that we can?

- RSX is still closed. Boooh. Well, if you want to work with it, just use a Cluster or get an CellBlade. :-3

- The strange future for Linux on PS3. Well, we have been talking about it here, but let's be serious, there is a pretty little number of people that indeed use Linux on PS3. It might happen like on PS2, in where we were all asking for the Linux Kit, but it wasn't used in the end.

- Is this really "slim"? I've read somewhere that they should call it PSThree or something, as this is not slim, lol. Maybe we can expect other hardware release with an extra-slim PS3? Lol, just kidding, but it would be funny.

Personally, i won't sell my JAP "Phat" PS3 to buy one of these Slim. But, i bet that there will be more that one that will do that exchange, having in mind what we have left behind, and what might come in the future.

(However, "Phat" is not the correct term, as the original PS3 is called "PLAYSTATION 3", and the Slim is called "Playstation 3". Caps time.)

Opinions, ideas, cakes?

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