[ExI] Life @ Playstation

[Tomasz Rola]

On Sun, 4 Nov 2012, Brent Allsop wrote:

> 
> I'm not experienced with PS-3s,

Neither I am. All I "know" about them is from reading.

> but I was thinking of getting one some day,

Yup, myself, I was enamored with idea to build my own little skynet, uh uh
I mean chess program on top of cluster of those.

Not anymore.

> mostly just to drive my TV.  So I'd definitely love to have the system 
> running things like folding at home, since I wouldn't be using it for games 
> and such.

Yes. Not much time for gaming and such.

> Doesn't the PS-3 run on Linux, i.e. you could still install and run anything
> you want?

AFAIK [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_3#Homebrew ] it does not. 
There was an option to run Linux, they say now it is no longer.

> Or is everything under Sony's control and locked down these days?
> If so, how hard is it to jail break the system?

Seems like Sony doesn't like the idea. They have a habit of fixing it with 
new updates. I can kind of support this move, because it also seems 
"folks" use jailbroken units to steal games:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_3#Custom_firmware_.28CFW.29

However, as you can notice, a jailbreak is temporary solution. And if I 
need to break, it also tells me about overall attitude towards users 
wanting to customise their purchase. I am not going to protest it, but I 
am not going to waste money on it either.

> If you can't even run things like folding at home, that significantly
> decreases my motivation to get one.

Yes. Depending on your needs, you may instead buy yourself a decent 
desktop in nice looking box. Add to it new gfx card, AFAIK nVidia seems to 
be better for computing (less errors - and yeah I know ATI claims to be 
faster but this depends a lot on what kind of stuff one runs on them). Or 
use old one, if it can be used. Voila! You have a PS replacement! 
Especially if you don't do games. I understand there are tons of decent 
used hardware on ebay. Myself, I would just build something out of such 
cheap parts (cheap does not mean failing, if one choses the right cheap). 
Or mix some old and some new.

Or make an upgrade to your existing computer. Etc, etc.

Overally, I nowadays prefer to buy hardware for exactly what I want to do 
with it. No more buying some product, jailbreaking and installing Linux on 
it. Too much hassle. Nobody cares other than relatively small groups of 
enthusiasts (alternatively, they might be just out of luck customers who 
bought with hope to customize and got trapped). It is better to spend 
similar money for things that simply do the job. I don't game much anymore 
and when I do those are really old games like "Steel Panthers" (I guess 
DOS version has about 10 years or more). If so, why would I buy a gaming 
console? And pay for things related to games (misc hardware accelerators) 
which most probably cannot be used under Linux, even if one manages to 
have it installed.

Regards,
Tomasz Rola

--
** A C programmer asked whether computer had Buddha's nature.      **
** As the answer, master did "rm -rif" on the programmer's home    **
** directory. And then the C programmer became enlightened...      **
**                                                                 **
** Tomasz Rola          mailto:tomasz_rola at bigfoot.com             **