As a fellow geek and admirer of many opensource projects and operating systems I'm often surprised at a lot of the negative feedback the PS3 has received in the echo-chamber of the geek-o-sphere.
If any moment in history has smiled upon the world of open-sourcery it's the release of the PS3. Considering the potential proliferation of the PS3 and it's native support of Linux, the community should be seeing this as their golden window of opportunity to turn the public on to FLOSS.
People have been complaining for ages that the one thing that has always been missing is games. Then elite HaX0rS and FLOSSY fanboys gather round and rejoice, now you have them, potentially lots of them on one of the most technologically sophisticated consoles ever. And if you compare buying a new PS3 to purchasing a computer with a similar form factor like a Shuttle $600 for the PS3 isn't such a bad deal considering it'll handle games that a Shuttle could barely play the intro scene for.
So take a deep breath, forgive Sony for their past transgressions, and realize that they just did opensource a huge f-ing favor. Just think, every friend who has a PS3 you can say, "Hey compadre, you try linux yet?" and when they say no, you can toss over an install CD and remind the world what an elite HaX0r you truly are.
To continue this line of rationale those friends have friends who will undoubtedly ask what operating system they are running on their PS3. "Linux?!" they'll gasp in delight, I've heard about that!" Come on, to have Linux or BSD or whatever on your PS3 could be THE THING, the bestest coolest mod ever to have. It could become one of those automatic installs like when you purchase a pc and load a bootleg of Photoshop. People will be shocked that you DON'T have Linux running. Before long they'll be saying, "What? What do you mean you don't have (insert favorite free OS)? Dude, I'm going over to Jimmy's, he knows what's up."
Having people get used to Linux on the PS3 is the perfect testing ground for Linux on the desktop. I have friends who spend hours on their consoles. Imagine if they were spending hours on their PS3/linux boxes? It's not a leap of faith to assume that they would perhaps then load the same operating system they have on their console onto their PC, is it?
Do opensource a favor, buy a PS3, load an opensource operating system on it, and show it off to your friends. Support opensource by bragging, "Yeah, I'm on the f-cking edge man, you can't touch this sh-t it's so hot. I got some humpty dumpty Ubuntu runnin' and I'm doin' my emails and sh-t while fraggin' some noobs."
PS3 stands for People, pleaSe wake up you just got your cake and can now eat it too x 3.
Some helpful links
Yellow Dog Linux for the PS3
Linux has PS3 support
ADD-ON CD distributed by Sony to get you started
