256 MB RAM ? [LWN.net]

256 MB RAM ?

Posted Nov 22, 2006 22:33 UTC (Wed) by mikov (subscriber, #33179)
Parent article: More than a toy, PlayStation 3 does Linux (InfoWorld)

Technologically speaking, it's really an intriguing piece of machinery, rivaling, if not trumping, the high-end desktop systems on the market."

Yeah, right with 256 MB RAM. Don't get me wrong, it is really insanely great to be able to run Linux on PS3 - heck I intend to buy one someday so I can play with something other than x86, but to tout it as a desktop replacement is just silly.

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256 MB RAM ?

Posted Nov 22, 2006 23:33 UTC (Wed) by peace (guest, #10016) [Link]

I'm using YDL on an /original/ iMac (233 MHz) with 256MB RAM right now. I
set it up for my sister-in-law and it is a little poky but completely
suitable for it's tasks. A ps/3 would surely outperform this iMac and
play games to boot. If it's easy to switch between the two modes it could
be really useful as a general purpose computer.

256 MB RAM ?

Posted Nov 22, 2006 23:35 UTC (Wed) by xanni (subscriber, #361) [Link]

I have both desktop and laptop machines that still only have 256M RAM, and Ubuntu and especially Xubuntu run just fine. It's not enough RAM to run VMware, but apart from that it's really not limiting in any significant way. There are an enormous number of things you can do with a 256M RAM machine.

256 MB RAM ?

Posted Nov 23, 2006 0:40 UTC (Thu) by mikov (subscriber, #33179) [Link]

You are probably right, but the claim in the article that the PS3 is
trumping high end desktops was an exaggeration to say the least. You could
buy a desktop with 512 MB RAM and a 3.2 GHz CPU for about $300.

256 MB RAM ?

Posted Nov 23, 2006 2:53 UTC (Thu) by allesfresser (subscriber, #216) [Link]

That all depends on what you want your desktop to do. I personally am salivating over the thought of running POVray or something similar using the Cell's processing power. Of course, until POVray 3.7 gets out of beta, that won't be possible, since the developers are firmly in the closed-source mode. (And may I just say that keeping a program in closed beta for over a year is kind of ridiculous...? if you're not Microsoft, of course, in which case it's expected, but I digress...)

256 MB RAM ?

Posted Nov 26, 2006 3:54 UTC (Sun) by drag (subscriber, #31333) [Link]

Screw Povray then.

Yafray is the way of the future for open source raytracers.

Integrates very well with Blender and also has support for parrellel processor rendering.

http://www.yafray.org/

256 MB RAM ?

Posted Nov 27, 2006 9:21 UTC (Mon) by LetterRip (guest, #6816) [Link]

POVRay, Yafray, Aqsis, Blenders internal renderer etc. will take quite a bit of work to take advantage of the SPEs. Personally I hope someone does the work to port Blenders simulation systems (Physics is already, but also fluids, cloth/softbody, and particles) to take advantage of SPEs, as well as the Renderer.

LetterRip