Anyone else have the PS2 Linux kit?

[mrgoodbytes]

was thinking of pulling mine back out of storage to play with it some more.

I bought a kit when they first came out because I had a number of classes in mips assembly programming in college but never got around to actually doing anything with it.

Anyone else have the kit? done anything interesting with it?

[GSZX1337]

I didn't know that there was a Linux kit for the PS2.

[Niode]

Wasn't there some controversy around this 'kit' as it allowed Sony to sell the consoles in a lower tax-brand if it was classed as a computer? They pulled the same crap with the PS3 just so they could make even more money off the consumer.

[mrgoodbytes]

well I think the main purpose of the linux kit wasnt to attempt to sell it as a 'PC', it was more or less a hobbiest developement system. It came with an adapted version hed hat, 20gig hd [IIRC], keyboard, mouse, a VGA cable [which technically I am pretty sure there was a way to use that to play games with], and an eithernet card [noticable different than the US spec one which also included a modem]. It also included alot of the software developement libraries [it did limit the amount of memory you could work with].

pretty cool toy and by the end it was a good deal to pick up at a 100 bucks. Unfortunately there was never much of a hobbiest scene that developed for it. At one time I was attempting to integrate it into my car.... sucks when you wait too long to work on a project as it would be very dated to do now.

it also had the limitation of requiring a synch on green monitor which is ummm difficult to find.

Also it required that you used an early release PS2 [models 30000 and 30001 IIRC]

[racketboy]

Wasn't there some controversy around this 'kit' as it allowed Sony to sell the consoles in a lower tax-brand if it was classed as a computer? They pulled the same crap with the PS3 just so they could make even more money off the consumer.

If that is true, it wouldn't be more money from the consumer. The consumer is still paying the same amount.
If anything, it's just avoiding giving as much money to the government. And that's just good business.

[D.D.D.]

Wasn't there some controversy around this 'kit' as it allowed Sony to sell the consoles in a lower tax-brand if it was classed as a computer? They pulled the same crap with the PS3 just so they could make even more money off the consumer.

If that is true, it wouldn't be more money from the consumer. The consumer is still paying the same amount.
If anything, it's just avoiding giving as much money to the government. And that's just good business.

Yup~ It's even in their name: Sony COMPUTER Entertainment.

[mrgoodbytes]

quoteth wiki "Some incorrectly speculate it was used as an attempt to help classify the PS2 as a computer to achieve tax exempt status from certain EU taxes that apply to game consoles and not computers. (It was the Yabasic included with EU units that was intended to do that) Despite this, Sony lost the case in June 2006. The kit was released in the spirit of the earlier, Net Yaroze PlayStation and Sony continued their support of hobbyist programmers with the support of Linux on the PlayStation 3."

and ironically sony was battling the opposite as well. With the PS2 not eligible for export to china because it was classified as a super computer.

If I'm not mistaken the 64 station PS2 cluster at university of IL is still on the top 500 computer list.

[Niode]

What I meant is that they could have passed a saving like that on to the consumer, but they didn't .

I know most companies aren't philanthropists but still

[mrgoodbytes]

but there was no savings to pass along... it was an ATTEMPT to get a tax break that failed.