Playstation 3

Today, 11/17/2006, Sony unleashed it's Playstation 3 (PS3) to the US market. Ok, so what does the Sony Playstation 3 have to do with Software Engineering? Quite a bit if you look out into the digital future, at least in my opionon. The PS3 is much more than a game machine. It is a supercomputer based on the IBM/Sony/Toshiba designed Cell processor (I blogged about the Cell earlier this year, The Octopiler) that runs on Linux, has a 60GB hard drive, 802.11g WiFi, Gigabit Ethernet, Blu Ray disc, and is designed to be the center of a digital entertainment hub for all your multimedia desires. Oh, yeah it is also an incredible Hi-Definition (up to 1080p), networked gaming machine.

I will not bore you with the technical details because that can be found all over the internet, printed media, and whenever you need it. One very interesting aspect of the Playstaion 3 that is downplayed, at least initially, is its inter-connectivity with the PSP. I really like the portability aspect of the PSP and use it quite frequently as a portable web browsing device and gaming machine. I'd like to see the PS3 and PSP collaborate with one another in games and other forms of digital entertainment that have not been explored yet.

I don't expect to be able to get a Playstation 3 anytime soon due to sell outs and limited supplies initally, but when I do eventually get one in the near future I intend to set it up in my family room and give it a spin as a center piece for the digital living room of the 21st century. I have intentionally held back from getting a large HDTV until after the PS3 was released. Now that the PS3 is out, I have begun researching and shopping for an LCD HDTV that will provide me with 1080p capabilities.

I think the PS3 will make the digital life interesting and fun again in 2007 and beyond. Something I would like to see is a Cell based notebook computer running Linux! Now that would be a really cool evolution say in 2008 for this family of technology. For now in 2006 and in 2007, we have the PS3. I can't wait to get mine.

The Open Source Battle Front

November 2006 will be remembered as the month when proprietary software companies opened a battle front in the inevitable war between open source and proprietary technologies. Here are some major signifcant events that have occurred:

• Oracle announced that it will compete with Red Hat Linux directly in the Linux IT services sector.


• Microsoft announced and signed a deal with Novell for licensing and working with the Linux community.


• Microsoft also has signed a deal with Zend the open source PHP vendor.


• Sun made Java open source under the GPL on 11/14/2006.

These are just the major announcements. There are many more than this however, the big proprietary companies are significant since they command so much market share and industry influence.

So what is the agenda under the agenda? It is an acknowledgement and action by the big proprietary vendors that they have decided to compete directly with open source companies that threaten their proprietary software business model. I thought this batte front was going to happen in 2007/2008 and it caught me off guard as to how soon the chosen battle fronts were made by the proprietary software companies (i.e. Oracle, Microsoft).

At any rate, the next few months and 2007 will definitely be a year of adventure, changes, and interesting developments in the open source world. What is interesting is how Google, Yahoo, Amazon, IBM, and other pro-open source companies have stayed out of the fireworks so far this month. It looks like they are all managing to proceed with their open source strategies, whatever they are, and moving forward changing the world.

As a supporter of open source I think big changes are in store for all us in 2007 and beyond.