For those that don’t already know, the PS3 supports Linux, and has its own distribution of Terrasoft’s Yellow Dog Linux as well as capable versions of Fedora, Gentoo, Ubuntu. On top of these Linux flavors, there is this cool Japanese man’s guide for Debian that helps homebrewers boot their own custom games, or do many other creative things with a Linux live cd.

Sony has been rather open about the use of Linux on the PS3, even assisting Tuxophiles with access to partitioning tools and a boot loader, making the installation of another OS simple and streamlined. All is not well though, as Sony has blocked advanced usage of the nVIDIA RSX chip (which shares its name with an Acura) and Linux users aim to unlock the powerful graphics processor.

Citing fears of home production or usage of games not originally designed for the PS3 coupled with control issues of with the Blu-Ray player, Sony has blocked the GPU with the PS3’s hypervisor. In other words, the platform that allows multiple operating systems to run on the PS3 also treats any OS besides the main one as a guest OS, therefore restricting access to hardware, in this case the nVIDIA RSX chip.

Although internet petitions barely ever work (the last one I ever did was one for re-releasing Timesplitters 2 for the PS2 as an online-capable game), go ahead and help the cause by signing the petition here.

[Via the Inquirer]

1. L.T. says:
   April 24th, 2007 at 12:28 pm

   Signed.

   Now is there a petition for a white PS3? I would paint it myself but black buttons on a white controller is so tacky. I need an official one.