MozillaZine

Project Brings Mozilla to the PlayStation 2

Friday July 11th, 2003

Marc Rust (amr) writes in with an extract from his AMR:blog: "Linux for Playstation 2 Community has a project on how to run Mozilla on your PS2 (via Linux, I assume): 'Project Description: This project will provide a Mozilla distribution for the PlayStation2. This project will also collect associated files, utilities and documentation to enable users to build Mozilla on their own.'"

#1 With merely 32MB, this is quite a challenge

by Prognathous

Saturday July 12th, 2003 1:42 AM

I'll be surprised if they make it...

Prog.

#2 Re: With merely 32MB, this is quite a challenge

by nilson

Saturday July 12th, 2003 1:50 AM

I don't know; People have done so many amazing things with the XboX, and it has all that Microshit ecoding protection on it.

#3 Re: Re: With merely 32MB, this is quite a challeng

by amr

Saturday July 12th, 2003 6:35 AM

I wonder if there's a way to utilize space on a memory card for extra RAM allocation?

#16 Re: Re: Re: With merely 32MB, this is quite a chal

by mpercy

Saturday July 12th, 2003 11:02 PM

It would be extremely slow, probably slower than just using swap; it's static flash memory.

Mike

#21 Re: With merely 32MB, this is quite a chal

by Tar

Monday July 14th, 2003 1:58 PM

I wonder why don't they do a DRAM memory card to expand RAM (128 MB should cost just some pennies today), would be way faster and durable than flash RAM.

#4 Looks like it works already

by webgremlin

Saturday July 12th, 2003 8:26 AM

Judging from the site, it looks like they already have it working.

#5 Re: Looks like it works already

by amr

Saturday July 12th, 2003 9:22 AM

I couldn't tell if they were actually running Moz on the PS2, or merely(?) using it to compile the builds.

#7 Re: Re: Looks like it works already

by WillyWonka

Saturday July 12th, 2003 11:26 AM

It sounds to me that it works (based on the forums - People are mentioning the speed differences between Dillo and Phoenix). PS2 runs linux and X-Windows so getting it to run doesn't sound like it was that hard.

#10 Re: Re: Re: Looks like it works already

by bzbarsky

Saturday July 12th, 2003 12:41 PM

Well, it involves porting the xptcall assembly code to the new arch.... and then removing enough crap from the build that X, linux, and Mozilla all fit in 32MB of RAM.

#6 Can anyone explain how it works?

by tseelee

Saturday July 12th, 2003 10:07 AM

The site is pretty confusing to me. It vaguely mentions a kit. Do you have to buy a HD or sth? If so, what exactly is in the kit? Thanks.

#8 This has been around for a while

by willll

Saturday July 12th, 2003 12:00 PM

what's the news?

#9 Re: This has been around for a while

by amr

Saturday July 12th, 2003 12:11 PM

It was news to me. I missed the media blitz the last time. :)

#11 PS3 for living room desktop

by Tar

Saturday July 12th, 2003 5:30 PM

What if Sony decides to sell semi-cheap Linux Desktop Pack (Knoppix kind of DVD with loads of ready to use FOSS software, wireless keyboard & mouse, DVI connector for monitor) as a addon with PS3 (the Cell arch)? Sold in millions... Linux desktop usage might go up somewhat ;)

Considering that the PS3 should come out in 2004/2005 or so then by that time Linux kernel, graphics subsystem and productivity software will be way beyond what is required for snappy, pretty and practical desktop.

#12 Re: PS3 for living room desktop

by bzbarsky

Saturday July 12th, 2003 6:48 PM

> will be way beyond what is required for snappy

On PS3 hardware? Show me the office suite that will run on this?

#13 Re: Re: PS3 for living room desktop

by roc

Saturday July 12th, 2003 7:55 PM

openoffice?

#14 Well, maybe if they get a GB memory card

by tseelee

Saturday July 12th, 2003 10:53 PM

Right now they can only use 32MB. Geez, even my gutted Pentium 166 has that much.

#17 Re: Re: Re: PS3 for living room desktop

by bzbarsky

Sunday July 13th, 2003 12:44 AM

roc, the claim was that it would be "snappy".

OpenOffice fails to be that even on decent desktop hardware, much less whatever the PS3 will have.

#15 Re: PS3 for living room desktop

by Tar

Saturday July 12th, 2003 11:02 PM

> On PS3 hardware? Show me the office suite that will run on this?

Then why not use browser based office/PIM software on it? ;)

Future is bright for Linux, Mozilla and other kewl FOSS projects :)

AFAIK PS3 should have at least 128 MB memory (256 or 512 MB more likely) plus multigigaherz Cell processor. Perhaps even embedded Linux to boot, tons of rumors around...

#18 Already done, the problem is it won't run.

by jelwell

Sunday July 13th, 2003 1:13 AM

The current Seamonkey tree already supports building Mozilla for the Playstation 2. The problem has been and always will be that mozilla can't run in 32 megs of RAM - the upper limit on the Playstation 2. Even Minimo won't fit there.

I've built Mozilla on the PS2 myself, the application launches but stops being useful after mere seconds. I wouldn't confuse Mozilla's so called "bloat" with being an issue here, even Konq doesn't run well on the PS2 - and supposedly it's less "bloated". I use Dillo on my PS2, it's about 600K and super fast.

And for those who don't know what this is all about. Sony sells an official Linux "hacking" kit that includes a hard drive, ethernet expansion, mouse, keyboard, vga adaptor and Linux on 2 DVDs. The version of Linux they provide eludes me, but it's a semi popular japanese Redhat 5.1 variant. Joseph Elwell.

#19 Mozilla Footprint Problems

by Tanyel

Sunday July 13th, 2003 11:40 PM

Maybe they should switch to KHTML.

#20 already mentioned

by the_Rebel

Monday July 14th, 2003 9:50 AM

Who should switch to KHTML and why? As mentioned in the previous post, Konqueror (which obviously already uses KHTML) has problems with the 32MB limit also.