I really don’t know why we’re still talking about this. You asked in the OP is Sony is preparing improvements like more ram and crap. We all basicly know the Slim isn’t really coming out this year. Just a White model, larger HDD and a few price cuts this year.

Now we’re on this long discussion as to whether Sony will add more RAM and sell it as a PC replacement.

Logic and reason say they wont. No money in it, it would costs more then a PC, segment the market even further. Some Devs are pissed at Sony for trying to market it as a multimedia machine more then a game console. Sony wouldn’t want to futher push SquareEnix away.

This discussion a fantasy what if? Or are you really thinking Sony would unlock Hypervisor mode, risk mod-chips that same week, piracy on the PS3. Further BD rips on the net, fracturing the userbase, turn off developers, kill off the Playstation brand. And raise the hardware costs all to only sell at no profit to make barely anyone happy.

I’m done with this discussion really.

1) A big stable name. Computer buyers are scared of obscure brands like Linspire. They want something that is supported, will work correctly, isn’t going to break, and comes from a company that they believe will give that. Sony has this.
2) Style. People want a stylish system. Linspire isn’t cool. Your typical brand X PC isn’t cool. The PS3 is *very* cool.
3) Unique features/software. A Linspire PC can do all the basics well with Firefox/OpenOffice/etc, but it really doesn’t do anything better than Windows to justify being on a fringe system. A PS3 has *awesome* unique fetaures: Blu-Ray, Home, PSN, and lots of amazing games.

PS3 can do Linux right now, but to really take off they need a few things:

- More RAM. Sub-256MB usable RAM simply doesn’t cut it. 1GB is really minimum for regular desktop usage.
- Fix video card issues. Linux use should have full 3D capabilities.
- Pre-Configure System. Mainstream consumers won’t buy a PC if they have to manually download the .iso and install/configure themselves. The system needs to be preloaded, fully supported by Sony, with all the basic apps ready to roll.

Sony wouldn’t make any money selling the hardware. Linux software for the most part is free.

You last post seem like your describing what PS3 Linux can already do. Marketing a PS3 with any added hardware would take a large hit on production costs. Sure they could add crappy DDR but to pool it together would slow down the XDR and require major hardware modifications.

And just because you can find it for $20 doesn’t make it cheap. Go to Newegg, order 15 million units spread it out over 4 quarters and that’s what it would up the production costs on just that one part.

Linux is already big for server and business use, but for personal desktop use, it’s definitely fringe.

Who would buy an ugly Dell for $800, when you could buy a smaller, quieter, more attractive PS3 for $400 that can do the same PC stuff (web, word processing, photos, light programming) and also plays PS3 games and Blu-Rays?

Sorry, I’ve probably talked on this too much. Thanks for responding though, I still think it’s a cool idea and I’m glad to hear what others think. I’ll put up a new topic.

Darrin, one thing I think your overlooking is Linux and Apple adoption rates are far higher then Vista. Or any Stand alone console could every hope to archive.

Linux isn’t a niche market in business or governments. It IS on a PS3 though.

Selling a PS3 to only cater to the HTPC market doesn’t make any sense due to the fact that PS3 is already capable of playing most media straight vanilla. Having it serve as a WebTV would be a failure. And having it server as a PC replacement wouldn’t bring in any profit since the software can’t be sold, they would have to survive off hardware sales along.

PS3, 360 and Wii combined is a very small drop of water in the ocean compared to PC base. So even if PS3 did come in a whacked out configuration like you want and sold 300 million units making it the best selling console in history it wouldn’t be enough to overthrow the desktop market.

I can’t imagine that enough people would want to buy the new version with extra for it to become economically feasable. I also believe that not only would a lot of potential PS3-buyers be turned off by the new hardware-improved PS3 and instead buy a Wii or Xbox360, because how long would it take Sony to make another “better” version? This means that Sony would lose this generation.

I also believe, that come PS4, almost nobody would be buying it, because they were all expecting Sony to come out with another hardware-improved version soon after. Which probably also means that Sony would lose the next-nextgeneration.

I just can’t see the logic in your statement. If you want to buy an upgradeable computer, go buy an upgradeable computer.

I’m very serious. If they preinstalled Linux or something similar like Solaris, and put the right apps on it, and supported it well, and marketed it correctly, this would be a runaway hit. Itt won’t take over the PC market, but it would be a solid hit, and break Linux out of niche status.

John is right: LOTs of people want a nice, simple PC. The PS3 has a way nicer form factor than most PCs, has some real cool tech (Blu-Ray), and some people (not all) really want an alternative to Vista.