Reasons to develop an easy to install All in One version of Xubuntu Hardy Heron for the Playstation 3

[Stephan Arts]

Parent-post: ^_~


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Vikram Vaka <vikram.vaka at gmail.com>
Date: Sun, May 4, 2008 at 4:51 AM
Subject: Reasons to develop an easy to install All in One version of
Xubuntu Hardy Heron for the Playstation 3
To: xfce4-dev at xfce.org




Yellow Dog Linux and Ubuntu currently do have a decent version out for
the PS3. But both are ridiculously slow due to the PS3's meager 256mbs
of ram. Xubuntu is light years ahead of YDL and Ubuntu in how fast it
runs on the PS3 inspite of the ram limitations. I have known many
people who installed YDL or Ubuntu on the PS3 as their first exposure
to linux only to be turned off by how slowly it ran.

But Xubuntu despite being by and far the fastest distro one can
install on the PS3, doesn't recognize any of the PS3's components when
you install it initially.

It is possible to get the PS3's WiFi card, Blu Ray drive, Soundcard
and audio, Bluetooth, Six Axis, popular Bluetooth Keyboards and Mice,
memory cards, xvid and divx codecs working on Xubuntu. It's possible
to get rid of the black bars that show up on the current Xbuntu PS3
version when viewed on any hdtv. And it's possible to maximize the
256mbs of ram on the PS3 by disabling all the services running by
default on the PS3 that aren't absolutely necessary.

The link below shows exactly how to do much of that…

http://psubuntu.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=904

But this process is extremely complex for people who have very little
experience with linux. It's a pain even for people such as myself to
have to do all of that to get Xubuntu on the PS3 with it's WiFi
internet working out of the box.

Furthermore new people trying linux on the PS3 will be extremely
frustrated when they can't get the operating system running at 1080i
(far superior to 720p in my personal experience) on their hdtv because
they didn't know to do the following when installing Xubuntu…

http://psubuntu.com/installation-instructions/setup/

If you listed these commands when you first launch the install cd
recommending 1080i and 1080p at 60hz for  US TVs and 1080i and 1080p
at 50hz for Australian TVs. You would save a whole ton of people a lot
of headaches.

So please put together a PS3 version of Xbuntu that lets you select
the resolution of your monitor when you install it and that has PS3's
WiFi card, Blu Ray drive, Soundcard, Bluetooth, Six Axis, divx and
xvid codecs and popular Bluetooth Keyboards and Mice working out of
the box.

Why force 20 million people to each have to go through all these steps
to get their PS3's WiFi card and other components working when you
could make a version that comes with the appropriate drivers already.

The standard hardware of all PS3s makes this extremely easy to
implement and the cell possessor its something to powerful to run
linux on it. When people find out that they can easily through a no
hassile install turn their PS3 into one of the fastest and cheapest
computers on the market, many PS3 owners will try out linux on it and
be exposed to Xubuntu for the very first time.

If your PS3 build came prepackaged with drivers for PS3's components
like YDL does, you could easily become the definitive linux to install
on a PS3. You could reach 20 million homes immediately, and many more
to come. You would be doing a massive favor to both PS3 owners
everywhere (by having an all in one PS3 linux distro that's not
incredibly slow like YDL is) and to the linux community at large (by
exposing many more people to a version linux that's lightning fast and
smooth as butter).

To put this all together, here is a list of features such an all in
one PS3 version of Xubuntu needs to have…

Menu asking for the highest resolution your tv can support,

Built In Drivers For WiFi,

Drivers for Bluetooth and SixAxis,

Drivers for the Bluray Drive,

Drivers for popular Bluetooth Keyboards & Mice,

Drivers for PS3's memory card reader,

Drivers for PS3's audio and general TV Speakers,

Xvid & DivX Codecs and a media player,

Launcher on the desktop that Reboots into PS3 Menu by executing the
command boot-game-os

A Fix To Get Rid of Black Bars Displayed On HDTVs – When you install
Xubuntu, you see blackbars all around,

Don't have any services running in the background by default that
aren't absolutely necessary as the PS3 only has 256 mbs of ram

Someway To Let You Rename The Title of Every Single Program On The
Menu & if possible perhaps even Create New Folders in the Menu & Sort
Programs Into Different Folders In the same way that windows lets you
completely customize and reorganize the program names on the start
menu,

Some Included Application That Lets You Reskin The OS To Customize How
It Looks if and only if a quality application that lets you do that
exists.




 ------------What does the linux community have to gain by doing
this?---------------

 There are already over 20 million PS3 owners, and many more to come.
I estimate that there are more PlayStation 3 machines in people's
home's than PPC and intel macs combined. By taking full advantage of
this, Ubuntu could theoretically grow to a larger market share than
mac OSX, which would put it on the proverbial radar in a very serious
way.

 As of now both the Ubuntu PS3 port and the Xubuntu ports are
struggling. I would love it if you guys reassess the value of this
port and really throw your might behind creating one ultimate hardy
heron release. Not only that, but I think Xuibuntu should use the
opportunity to implement a few features that could make it the best
gaming OS on earth, such as qjoypad integration and a gaming-mode
wherein all processes not related to the task at hand are hibernated
to swap while a game or, say, fullscreen blender, runs.

 Windows is why people are running from the PC for their gaming. Let
them run to linux. Let them not be disappointed. ...Let them wonder
why they even bother with windows.

 In addition, Sony has done something great by letting us use the PS3
to run linux's own code. Let them be envied for it.

 What can linux's devs lose by developing Xubuntu for the PS3? Maybe
countless people around the world using Xubuntu on the most powerful
computer out there? If Xubuntu isn't there for the PS3, everyone will
turn to YellowDog and Ubuntu, which are only slightly more functional,
and incredibly slow due to the ram limitations. There are very few
people who retain hope for PS3 version of Xubuntu.

I'm not just saying this is an opportunity. I'm saying this is a good
opportunity, and a relatively exclusive opportunity. To miss it would
be terrible. Not that we will. Those of us with PS3's are making do
with what we have... but the lack of real support really will have
slowed us down in taking advantage of the situation.


Furthermore, you guys are  our best hope of negotiating the unlocking
of the RSX. If that happens, linux will be in direct competition with
the PS3's gaming OS. If you guys care to compete, and we make
something better, well, what would that say about gaming on linux?
People have PS3's. Did anyone think they just might want to try
tremulous, apricot, warsow, urbanterror, nexuiz, openarena, and so on
and so forth on them? How else is that going to happen? PS3 owners are
humans too. And they're a lot more likely to try linux on their PS3
than their PC, I would think.


EVERY SINGLE guy I know who owns a PS3 told me that he wants to use
his PS3 as a surfing/office/entertainment machine and has heard that
there are ways to put another OS on it and that they want to get rid
of a PC in their living room because it's too loud and too big and
they need it for news and surfing and stuff like that, but would like
to just have only a PS3 they already own with possibilities of a
simple living-room-pc. I think that a simple installation of Xubuntu
on a PS3 would give a great market share for Xubuntu and PS3-Users
would love to have an linux os that is not slowed to a crawl by the
PS3's meager 256 mbs of ram.


On Sun, May 4, 2008 at 9:56 AM, Cody A.W. Somerville
<cody-somerville at ubuntu.com> wrote:
> Where can I find the parent post?
>
> It should be noted that Xubuntu can already run on the PS3.
>
> Cheers,
>
>
>
> On Sun, May 4, 2008 at 3:52 AM, Stephan Arts <stephan at xfce.org> wrote:
>
> >
> >
> >
> > On Sun, May 4, 2008 at 4:51 AM, Vikram Vaka <vikram.vaka at gmail.com> wrote:
> > >
> > >
> > > <snip>
> >
> > Ok, great.
> >
> > When I take a look at your feature-list, none of them are Xfce related.
> > So, here comes my question:
> >
> > 'What does all this have to do with xfce?!'
> >
> > -
> > Stephan