"The PS3's hard drive 'will be 60GB big, be completely upgradeable, and support Linux OS' plus 'will act as a home server and allow users to store various forms of media to be pulled up elsewhere.' It hasn't yet been made clear if all PS3 systems will come bundled with a hard drive. SPOnG expects that this will be the case, and we will be very surprised otherwise, but watch this space for confirmation."
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Member since:2005-07-06
Linux homecomputer users are a niche, people who would use PS3s for their homeservers would be an even smaller niche compared to the other millions of consoles.
And I wouldn't buy a PS3 with all it's power just to run MAME.. 
Either way, a PS3 sold is still a source of potential revenue. Productioncosts will go down, and anyone with a PS3 in house will have to face some temptations in regards to buying games.
BTW, making your own games will be possible, but you will probably not be allowed to sell it.
Member since:2005-07-06
Yes, I am agree. The "temptation" point is very valid, I was about to add that would finally buy/rent some game.
But about the niche think on about this. If PS3 is a powerful linux machine many people would buy it as a:
Server
Render station (farm)
Workstation
Hobby computer
etc...
mainly in developing countries, even more now that linux is catching speed. Think about the latest advances as XGL/Compiz, even other eye-candy, openoffice starting to be mature enough to be used for small business, things like Automatix, etc...
Member since:
2005-07-06
But then Sony is going to lose loads of money, if thanks to the linux set many people (like me) would buy the PS3 just to use the linux distro and (maybe) play MAME and the rest of the emulators, these people are not going to benefit Sony buying games and they will never recover the investment.
People are hard at hacking the Xbox 360, with that amount of memory and that CPU it is a beast in terms of tech specs (in par with the PS3 I estimate), but I don't like playing videogames, if one day Linux runs well in the XBox360 Msoft is going to die, so many people buying it just as a computer and Msoft losing money for each sold console.
Instead I think Sony is going to put that high price to the PS3 knowing that many people may be buying it as a computer instead as a console if the linux story is true.
And this linux distro may be very limited in terms of access to the full potential of the hardware (as in the PS2 Linux kit) . If a linux distro gets the full power of that kind of machine I would make a Linux game for PS3 and avoid hiveng to buy an expensive licence to Sony.