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This is a very quick and easy project with most of the neccesary work already done by various with their work detailed below. It just needs about a days worth of time to put it all together.

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, a SNES, Genesis, GBA and n64 emulator, xvid, divx, dvd and blu ray 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…

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

and here are some additional tweaks that should be encorporated into this build...

[WWW] http://psubuntu.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=105

Having to go thru this whole process to get Xubuntu working on the PS3 with the PS3's components 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…

[WWW] 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, memory cards, divx and xvid codecs, boot-game-os launcher, black bar fix 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, a dvd and blu ray codec and a media player,

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

Micheal Steele's 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

An option to automatically progress through the installation for those working off of a bluetooth keyboard and mouse that kboot wouldn't recognize

An SNES emulator, a Genesis emulator, an arcade emulator, a GBA emulator, a DS emulator and an n64 emulator and fix to run them through the sixaxis/ds3 controller [WWW] http://psubuntu.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=97

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.

Here is a link with the current Xubuntu version available for the PS3...

[WWW] https://help.ubuntu.com/community/PlayStation_3

In addition to the features above, I propose including the features listed here...

[WWW] http://psubuntu.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=105

Some Cell optimized kernals and tools are available here...

[WWW] http://kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/geoff/cell/

The second comment in the link below shows how people get Hardy Heron running on the PS3, it's an overly complicated process at the moment...

[WWW] http://psubuntu.com/2008/04/25/no-psubuntu-hardy-yet/#comments

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. Everyone 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.