Sony OtherOS Installer for Sony PlayStation 3 Released

Last saturday, I posted about Terra Soft releasing Yellow Dog Linux 5 for the PS3 on November 27th. And earlier this week, the Fedora developers tried to one-up them by releasing an add-on disc for FC5 PPC (which YDL is based on) to install the original distribution on one's shiny new console.

Today, the very much anticipated Sony OtherOS Installer was also made available for download, unleashing the final key to enabling anyone to easily turn the powerful game console into a full blown computer.

• otheros.self.zip (1.29 MB @ QJ, file and complete instructions)
• CELL-Linux-CL_20061110- ADDON.zip (41.77 MB @ QJ, binary)
• CELL-Linux-CL_20061110- SRCCD.zip (131.01 MB @ QJ, source)

It is advised to use the FC5 PPC DVD, rather than CD set, to proceed with this installation:

• bordeaux-DVD-ppc.torrent (bittorrent, 3.4 GB)
• FC-5-ppc-DVD.iso (http, 3.4 GB)
• More mirrors

For more details, the Quick Journal team has a couple of nice articles on how to boot and install GNU/Linux on the PlayStation 3.

• Nov. 13: PS3 Dual Boot Instructions & Blu-ray disc mounting supported!
• Nov. 12: Kernel patches and documentation for PS3 Linux

I would still imagine, though, that Terra Soft will probably remain the leader in Linux for the Power Architecture, all the more in the enterprise market, given the type of resources they have to support their distribution: dedicated team, first Cell-based supercomputer, IBM and Sony backing, etc.

But for many, you can't be early and free! :)

Update: Someone has now posted a video of Fedora Core 5 running on a PS3 on YoutTube.