Good news for those who use Linux on their PlayStation 3s!  Yellow Dog Linux v6.1 has been released, marking the final release from Terra Soft, and the first by Fixstars. Version 6.1 an updated Firefox and OpenOffice.org, and features ps3vram functionality, enabling the use of PS3 video RAM for temporary storage or swap.

More details after the link.

The PlayStation 3 is once again adding another set of clothes to its already impressive wardrobe. Sony's next gen home video game console will reportedly be present at the Office 2.0 Conference to showcase ways to harness its power in an office setting.

The PS3 will be used to power the flat panel displays at the Office 2.0 Conference as a proof of concept. According to a press release we received today, the console will be used to show the conference's agenda and special announcements by fetching pages from the Web over a Wi-fi network.

"We are always looking for innovative devices that enable office productivity," said Ismael Ghalimi, Intalio CEO and producer of the Office 2.0 Conference. "The PS3 running Firefox on Linux is a perfect example of a device that empowers technology in the living room."

A video game console being used for office productivity. Who'da thunk it? The Office 2.0 Conference runs from September 5 until September 7 in San Francisco, CA.

Killzone fans, here's some good news for you. According to a post made by a dev on the official Killzone: Liberation boards, killzone.com has finally gone live. It's still a work in progress and isn't 100% complete yet, but it should give players access to some unlockables via the PSP or a PC.

Right now, the website only has info for PS2 title Killzone 1 and Killzone: Liberation for the PSP, but according to the same announcement, information and details for the upcoming PS3 title Killzone 2 should be released on the website in the coming months.

Oh, and here's a tip for Firefox users. If at first the Killzone website looks messed up on your browsers, press Ctrl+F5 and it should look all fine and dandy.

Would you like to get on the PlayStation Store using your PC? You might have your own reasons for wanting to try it but for the heck of it, we guess it pays to know stuff. Some have even claimed that they downloaded Gran Turismo HD, and the files are encrypted as *.pkg files.

Anyway, if ever you are interested, here's what you should do:

• Open Mozilla Firefox
• In the Address Bar, type: about:config
• Right click on the table, then click "New"
• Then choose "String" and type: general.useragent.override
• Click Ok, then type: Mozilla/5.0 (PLAYSTATION 3; 1.00)
• Close the tab, open a new window and go to: https://account.np.ac.playstation.net/login.gvm

Regarding your downloaded stuff like demos, you can always transfer them to your console anyway. If you've figured out a good reason why anyone should do this, kindly inform us. Thanks!

The number of Linux distros for the PS3 keeps increasing steadily. After already having heavyweights such as Fedora Core and Gentoo gracing their presence on the PS3, we now have Debian being released for it.

And make no mistake, while many of you might have never heard of Debian, it holds as much, if not more respect than the distros already out. And in case you didn't know, Debian could be called the father of Ubuntu since Ubuntu was originally started as a fork of Debian. The major advantage of Debian is its stability which is already proven by it being one of the top operating systems in a server environment.

Anyways, what's great is that this OS is released with a livecd environment, which means that everyone who is scared of Linux can give it a try, without being afraid of it modifying your system. As a live CD, all you need to do is install the kboot bootloader and select OtherOS as your default OS. After that, just burn the Debian CD as an image on a CD-R and insert it in your PS3 when it boots up. Once Debian starts, you can enter a number of parameters to customise your boot environment.

• live - Boot Debian Live
• yuv480i - Boot Debian Live in 480i video mode
• yuv480p - Boot Debian Live in 480p video mode
• yuv720p - Boot Debian Live in 720p video mode
• yuv1080i - Boot Debian Live in 1080i video mode
• yuv1080p - Boot Debian Live in 1080p video mode
• yuv576i - Boot Debian Live in 576i video mode
• yuv576p - Boot Debian Live in 576p video mode
• WXGA - Boot Debian Live in WXGA video mode
• SXGA - Boot Debian Live in SXGA video mode
• WUXGA - Boot Debian Live in WXUGA video mode
• install - Boot Debian-Installer in normal mode
• expert - Boot Debian-Installer in expert mode
• rescue - Boot Debian-Installer in rescue mode

You can install it by typing 'install' at the boot screen. Or you can check out Debian as a live cd by typing 'live'. The live cd environment which will boot up has a minimal GNOME desktop along with a bunch of utilities including the Firefox browser. The login details for the live cd are as follows:

Username - casper
Password - live

Remember that these details are for the live cd only. If you decide to install Debian on your PS3, you will get a chance to set the user details yourself. The otheros.bld which you must use for the kboot installer should be downloaded from the link below. So make sure to extract that file using a utility like WinRAR and using it with otheros.self.

Tutorial: [Partitioning and readying your PS3 for Linux]
Link: [Debian Live CD + Installer ISO]
Link: [PS3 Cell Addon CD (For otheros.bld)]
Link: [QJ.NET PS3 Linux forums]
View: [Debian on Wikipedia / Debian on DistroWatch]

It's a couple of days late, but we think it can still afford to be labeled important news. Now up for beta testing is the Gentoo PPC64 PS3 LiveCD, which will enable you to use a GNOME desktop environment on both the PS3 and the G5 Apple PowerMac.

If you don't know what GNOME is, it's a kind of open-source desktop environment that people have updated with open source versions of the software normally found in other operating systems. In other words, it's an alternative desktop choice that also has a big, supportive fanbase for newbie questions.

In addition to GNOME, the LiveCD also has Audacious, Evolution, Firefox 2-X (Bon Echo), Gaim, Gimp-2, and Xchat software included, which make it a pretty hefty package. You can find more information on the ins and outs of this new development at the source, and feel free to check the additional link for download mirrors. Just look for the "experimental/ppc64/livecd" directory in your respective mirror sites. Enjoy!

Offsite Link: [Gentoo Download Mirrors]

We're reporting this as objectively as possible. No opinions. No spins. No nothing. And with lots of " ". As soon as this gets posted we're ducking safely out of the line of crossfire.

Remember the Bill O'Reilly article we posted some weeks ago? The one where he called gamers "junkies " and game consoles, particularly the PS3, as a "big, big problem" because "people get addicted to it, just like opium, just like drugs and alcohol."

Shortly after that, the "culture warrior" appeared on Oprah to air his views on the war that's tearing up America. The "culture war " is between "Traditionalists" like him who believe that "America is a noble country." On the other corner are the "Secular-Progressives" who he says think America is a "deeply flawed society that needs changes in every area."

And yes, we read it. Twice. And no, he didn't say anything about video games.

Anyway, this is not about the O' ranting on the O. This is about this video on YouTube featuring a little girl sassing back at O'Reilly's stand on video games and rap music. After watching this video we thought Cher donated her brain and this kid was the (good or bad) recipient. It turned out the girl was an actress and the whole thing was an ad for a band called The Bastard Fairies.

But that's not the end of it. Go check the rest of the story out (and a couple more videos as well) by clicking "Full Article"!

A lot of you guys are probably already enjoying using that big black box as a tinker-happy testbed of sorts for your Linux stuff, probably immersed in the search for the boot-game-from-the-HD holy-grail.

Some of you are probably annoyed that Linux can't get to the RSX chip, while some of you are probably content with using your PS3 to run MAME and other Emulators. Some of you are probably just happy with the fact that you've got Firefox on YDL, and your home entertainment system can now double as a slightly slower PC.

Now that we're amused and immersed with our PS3 hobby-kit, shouldn't all this remind us of something? Eurogamer points out:

It will probably be a matter of months before someone develops an operating system, based on Linux, which installs through a simple process on the PS3 and presents the user with a nice, simple interface, controlled by the SIXAXIS pad, for playing a variety of media, streaming from servers on your network, reading webpages, playing emulated ROMs, and so on.

Sound familiar? It is, of course, exactly what the Xbox became when it was chipped, had its hard drive replaced and was updated with a piece of software called XBMC - Xbox Media Centre. The PS3 is a more powerful system, which benefits greatly from things like USB ports, built-in card readers and a wireless LAN card, all of which enhance its functionality as a media system, while a faster processor will make the playback of high-definition content, such as H.264 video, a possibility - so it will be a very valuable system as a media box, just as a chipped Xbox was in its day.

Makes you chuckle a bit huh?

IGN has an article up featuring the ins and outs of working with Yellow Dog on the PS3. Most of the article talks about how to get the OS installed into their console, and since we think it's safe to assume that our readership is already well-informed about that process, we'll skip those parts and we'll relay to you their take on the working with YDL's applications on the PS3.

What's interesting about the post they've got is that they claim that's it's all been generated and posted using YDL.

Basic Use - The interface should be similar to the experience you get when using a Windows or Mac system. The E Shelf (the main user bar) appears by default on the top center of the screens and from there you can various applications.

Networking - The PS3's Ethernet port works without any setup, aside from maybe popping in an IP address if you need to. Wireless is a different issue, however. WiFi isn't automatically detected, and while you can go and manually add a wireless adapter, the OS doesn't try to help and choose which brand it is. So if you aren't all that savvy, it's going to end up a guessing game.

Get the rest of the article after the Jump!

A day after the PS3 Japan launch madness, all of us here at QJ had a chance to look back and see exactly what info we had missed. I had the responsibility of checking out the Linux side of things. And while the article which I wrote yesterday was pretty much spot on, there's a few more things which I could get out of the documents released.

So without further ado, I'll make a list of things which I've learned today:

How Linux will work: The PS3 will use kboot as its Linux bootloader. The way this works, you'll first have to download OtherOS installer (not released, yet) from Sony's official site. The next thing you'll need is a customised kboot "image". In case anyone's wondering, no, it isn't a picture. It's a single archive that will contain all the stuff needed to boot Linux.

The important thing to note here is that kboot, in itself, is nothing more than a sort of a loader which will use Lilo or GRUB to load the Linux kernel. I've noticed that neither kboot or GRUB are released for the PPC architecture. I don't know about GRUB, but I'll hazard a guess that Sony have ported kboot to the PPC arch, and since it's released under the GPL license, Sony will have to release its source code.

Moving on to the installation part, it seems that it will be pretty easy. I'll write up a small how-to here. Please refer to the already-released documents for the full instructions:

• Format your PS3's HDD into 2 partitions. The Format utility seems to be very intuitive and easy-to-use.
• Download the OtherOS Installer from Sony's Open Platform for PS3 site.
• Download the customised kboot image for your specific distro (Will be supplied with the distro?)
• Put both of them on an external USB device in a special folder structure using your PC.
• Plug it into the PS3 and select the "Install Other OS" in the PS3 menu.
• It will scan the external storage device and list the Other OS installer.
• At this point, going ahead and selecting the install option will install kboot (the bootloader) to your PS3's HDD.
• Bear in mind that kboot is almost like a secondary bootloader. kboot will be initialised by the PS3's own bootloader, which will be protected, to say the least.
• Once kboot is installed to your PS3's HDD, it's time to install the actual distro itself. Since the guide itself explains with the example of Fedora Core 5, I will be following it. The main reason is that I still don't know where the customised kboot image comes from. Will the distributions officially release them? Or will we have to go around looking for them on unofficial sites? We'll know more as time goes on...
• Anyways, once you've installed kboot, just go to the System Settings in the PS3's menu and select the default system as Other OS.
• Once you reboot your PS3, you will now be booted into kboot. You're almost there! All that's left is installing Fedora Core 5 after following the instructions on screen.

Once into Linux, you will be able to use it like any other computer. You will be able to fire up Firefox and browse the intarwebs, or load MythTV and convert your PS3 into a true-blue media center. It's as good as a shiny new PC once you're into Linux.

But wait! That's not all. After checking out the documents, I did find a few small bits of info which are big news in itself:

• You will be able to switch to the PS3's game OS from Linux.
• You will be able to use the Blu-ray drive to mount all types of discs including Blu-ray discs!
  

Looking at the fact that we will be able to mount Blu-ray discs in Linux, my mind wanders around to the fact that it could be possible to dump the PS3's game discs, and it might be easier than Sony would think. Currently, I can hazard a guess that their special Blu-ray drivers for Linux will not allow you to do so, but give it a few weeks and the hackers can easily come out with modified drivers to make the drive work according to their fancies. That's all speculation though, I won't go into much detail.

The only thing which I really want to get cleared is the situation with the kboot images. Knowing the Linux community, I can safely take it for granted that someone somewhere will create a special kboot image for your favorite distro. It's just a matter of time before the PS3 is released in the US and embraced by the modding and Linux communities. At QJ, we'll be making sure that all you Linux users can use it on your PS3. We will be covering everything in the PS3 scene as and when it happens.

Download: [Corresponding documents for Linux on the PS3]
Visit: [PS3 Linux Forums]