Sony's PlayStation 3 (PS3), due this month, will not ship with Linux pre-installed, as suggested in March by CEO Ken Kuturagi. However, TerraSoft CEO Kai Staats says his company's Yellow Dog Linux is installable by “anybody who knows how to use a keyboard, mouse, and browser,” according to an… interview in the Coloradoan.

Both Kuturagi and Staats have said that when running Linux, the PS3 has limitless potential to serve as a home computer, as well as a gaming device, DVD player, and digital media server. Staats told the Coloradoan, “This is not an application-limited appliance. This is a full-blown computer. There is no issue of 'can it do this or that?' It can do everything.”

The PS3 is based on a “Cell” processor with a PowerPC core and seven vector processors called “synergistic processing engines” (SPEs). Its multiple SPEs are expected to bring the PS3 unprecedented graphics capabilities — such as the ability to drive extra-high-definition “1080p” displays (1920 x 1080 displays with progressive rendering).

The Coloradoan's interview with Staat can be found here.

Additionally, Staat has organized a campaign to lobby Adobe to deliver a version of Flash 9 for the PowerPC architecture, in advance of PS3 availability.

TerraSoft earlier supplied the Linux distribution for Mercury Computing military/aerospace systems that, like the PS3, are based on the PowerPC-based Cell architecture.

 
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