I think that the PS3 community would have been willing to pay for
accelerated video, though I don't know whether that would have made
it
profitable. I actually think that this misses the point. Apple did
very well just after the Mac was introduced in 1984 by encouraging
3rd
party software and helping build the enthusiasm for the platform. If
Sony had opened up the GPU (at least provided drivers for linux),
there could have been a small groundswell of enthusiasm for the
machine which certainly would have also translated into the sale of
games. I hate video games but many of the potential linux users don't
feel this way and would have bought them.
Right now, I have a bad taste in my mouth about Sony and to a smaller
extent about the PS3. I will continue to use it as a platform for
learning about the Cell, but much of my enthusiasm for the platform
has been lost. The forums at ps2dev were buzzing with excitement
after the "hack" was successful; recently the number of new posts is
about one a week and most are about some peripheral, not the PS3.
I simply don't see how the desktop experience for PPC linux on Macs
can compare to that of OS X. The latter is a mature, fairly
delightful
system to use with lots of very good software available at reasonable
prices (of for free). It is very fast right now with excellent ppc
support (even Flash!!). Even on the x86 side, where the performance
is
not as much an issue (since x86 is supported), Linux is quite a bit
behind OS X, in my opinion. This is too bad, since I strongly support
the open software movement. Part of the problem is that the linux
developers have been trying to emulate windows and this is not a very
good paradigm, in my opinion. The rest might be the closed hardware
and proliferation of different configurations which make linux
difficult to administer.
I do support the efforts of Fixstars in making a ppc and Cell linux
available. Perhaps the Powerstation will aquire a Cell processor
without a price increase and can actually become a reasonable
competitor to the PS3 as a Cell platform. All of the others are much
too expensive for mass consumption, in my opinion. Eventually, Intel
will come up with a competitor - it will probably be technically
inferior but will be marketed well to the consumer, if history is any
guide.
Cheers,
wn
On Jan 19, 2009, at 1:49 PM, Kai Staats wrote:
In my opinion, this will
never change with PPC hardware, which is a tiny niche of a small
niche. It would be nice if a PPC vendor like Fixstars could fix
this,
but they would need serious cooperation from the GPU manufacturers
and that is likely not forthcoming (the PS3 linux disaster is a
case
at point).
Yes, because PPC hardware is a relatively small player in the
commodity,
consumer world, there is less pressure and less reason for companies
such as
Apple to support Linux. But the inside story is that Apple was
conflicted,
for at one time (2000/2001) they had a Linux Technology Manager,
full-time,
with a small team at his disposal. But eventually, this position was
terminated (as far as I know).
Apple's shareholders want religious focus, not me-too consideration
of all
things possible. Linux simply was not on the radar outside of the
work by the
former Terra Soft, which was granted a unique license to install
Linux and
maintain warranty, but never received a single bit of data.
Concerning Sony, similar unfolding. While the former CEO of Sony had
a vision
for the PS3 to be more than a game box, selling PS3s without games
actually
loses money for Sony (or so the rumor goes). So if you open the RSX
so that
Linux lovers may run their favorite games (Windows emus as well) on
the PS3,
Sony loses money on each PS3 they sell to Linux users who don't buy
games.
You have to keep in mind that >90% of PPC is embedded. We use it
every day for
telecom, auto, routers, etcv. And most of it is running some
flavor of
Linux/Unix. What we as consumers enjoy is a unique PPC + Linux
combination
for the desktop which is by no means the largest following on the
planet.
Consumers + x86 + Linux makes money for x86 OEMs due to the
incredible variety
of low-cost parts and systems.
PPC + Linux is an increasingly powerful combination in
supercomputing and
embedded applications, but to date, there have not been a great many
consumer
products built on Power.
But all things cycle, right? So maybe some of the new CPUs from
Freescale or
AMCC will find their way into consumer products again ... or maybe
the next
gen Playstation will have more RAM --who knows?
Until then, Fixstars does its best to support the commodity systems
to keep
the ecosystem healthy. It is more difficult to sell high-end systems
if we do
not have the mid-range as well, something to experiment with or run
on the
side of the cluster for devel or testing. The PS3 works very well
for this,
and plays a significant role in several outstanding clusters.
Could we get 2D, even 3D support for the older Macs? Sure, but could
we
justify the expense? No, not unless we charge a helluvalot more for
the
licenses.
Sincerely,
kai
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