xRhino has released BlackRhino, a Debian-based Linux operating system for the Sony PlayStation 2 (PS2) game console. xRhino developed BlackRhino in the course of creating a game title for the PS2, and is “releasing this distribution at no charge to the general public in the hopes that the [Linux] PS2 development community will continue to grow,” according to xRhino president Manu Sporny.

The BlackRhino release is targeted toward developers, and is intended to foster game and utility development for the PS2. It hosts over 1200 software packages, including simple games, text editors, compilers, web servers, windowing systems, database systems, graphics packages, mail servers and a variety of other development tools and utilities.

BlackRhino requires the PlayStation 2 Linux kit, which is available from playstation.com.

Sony reports that more than 50 million consumer PS2s have been installed worldwide.

BlackRhino is available here.

 
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