Worth the time/trouble to install additional OS on PS3?

[Madeline]

Mostly asking because friend mentioned adding an OS to his PS3 and it somewhat piqued my interest since my PS3 is a $400 paperweight at the moment.

I've read guides on how to do it and what it takes, but what I really want to know is if it's worth the time/trouble to go through all of these seemingly annoying processes to install the OS.

Secondly, is it at all going to function like an OS would on a computer? Is it going to be slow, quirky, is it going to make me want to light my PS3 on fire and sacrifice a goat?

And last, which OS would perform the best in the event there is one considered to be "better/best" for PS3? I've heard there are a few that will run on the PS3, but again, I have no idea.

Halp please!

[virusiidx]

If you feel like experimenting and messing around with it, it's fun to try it out. But don't expect it to be fast or of the like. The PS3 uses a PPC cpu which isn't commonly used anymore in desktop PCs since desktops OSes use the x86 architecture, even Macs now. There's still a few PPC Macs out there, but it's getting less common.

Linux is one of the OSes that support PPC still, but there's not many packages for it. If there is, it's less supported. YellowDog and Ubuntu Linux (for PPC/PS3) are the most common used for PS3. So what that means is you're probably not going to find much software out there for it in the repositories as you would in a regular x86 based OS. You can find some stuff such as media players, emulators, office programs, web browsers and other popular apps, but not much of a choice or variety. There's still 100's of PPC packages, but nothing compared to the 1000's of x86. Don't expect to play any decent 3D games as the RSX GPU is locked by the firmware, so it's unusable by the OS. The OS can still use the other components and devices such as the dvd/bluray reader, USB slots, card slots, etc..

So yeah, like I said, it's more of something to play around with for fun, nothing fast. Takes some minimal knowledge of Linux since only Linux Distros can be installed on it, but nothing too advanced.

Oh yeah, and unless it's changed, the PS3's partiioning is kinda retarded. It only allows you to allocate 20GB to the Linux OS or all but 20GB for the PS3 itself.

Hope that helps!


Edit: If you do go through with installing an OS on the PS3, I would recommend Ubuntu or YellowDog. I prefer Ubuntu myself though.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/PlayStation_3
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuPS3/InstallationGuide

[Madeline]

Ah, ouch! The GPU being locked by firmware is a bit bleh, but it's not why this caught my interest really.

But I'm assuming that since it's locked I won't get beyond SNES/PSX/etc emulators as it is, which I already have on my laptop. I can easily see why the GPU is locked since that would be seemingly broken due to how popular emulation is getting lately. :/ It really sucks how little support there is for these types of things these days.

With what you said I think I'm going to go ahead and try out YDL. I have a little knowledge when it comes to Linux and I think I'd have fun with it since I like toying around with these types of things.

And as for partioning I honestly don't see myself needing, much less using 20GB on this type of install.

Anyway, thanks for the input!

edit: I'm actually going to take the time to pick apart YDL and ubuntu before I make any decisions, I've regretted rushing into stuff too many times before.

[virusiidx]

NP, good luck.

The reason I prefer Ubuntu over YDL is because there's more support for Ubuntu, more packages and overall easier to find answers. YDL is rpm based (redhat/fedora/centos) while Ubuntu is deb based (Debian variants), so they're also different file structures.