"It just opens them up to too much risk with pirated software."

It doesn't really. Linux on PS2 didn't help the piracy effort on PS2 at all. The reason being, you have to hack the main OS that actually plays the game, which is completely seperate from Linux. You can hack Linux all you want, but it won't get you anywhere with regards to the main OS. You won't be able to create code to run under the main OS to take advantage of security holes in it, either (that code will run under the Linux distro, not the XMB OS). Your best bet for exploiting holes in the main OS will still be stuff like dodgy save files in games etc.

Oh, and the possibilities are much greater than just streaming media from other computers. In fact, it potentially will allow PS3 to be an ideal media centre and server itself. Think of XBMC, but for HD media. Think also of homebrew. The point is you can do whatever you want, aslong as you or the community makes it happen.

"Don't believe for a second that each core is as powerful as a PC's CPU."

Depending on the application, they certainly can be, or more powerful, as has been demonstrated in a number of benchmarks and applications.

Rumor has it that they're working to get rumble back in. Might explain the delay in getting the motion sensing into the dev's controllers - although I would not worry to much about games being able to make use of it for launch. The more trivial uses of it should be pretty easy to just drop into games (as Warhawk demonstrated).

"A big difference would be developing for the 360 will be much simpler for small developers to get into. "

Coding in Linux is not difficult, in fact I had an easier time with it than I had initially with Windows coding. Beyond OS specifics, though, they're the exact same (well, it would be if MS used C++ anyway). And you can actually code on Windows using Visual Studio and then copy your code to Linux and compile and build there if you like. Lots of useful things will also be ported very quickly to PS3 Linux, (things like the Quake 3 engine, for example, as mentioned earlier, would be pretty much immediately available).

Did we all just completely forget about Linux on PS2? It was a pretty big step forward from Net Yaroze. PS3 Linux looks like a logical step forward again, with it being available on everyone's hard drive. And that's one key way it trumps this new MS initiative - MS do not plan to allow everyone to access user-created content until 3-5 years down the road, whereas every PS3 owner will have Linux and will be able to create and try out other user-created games, for free.

Gotta love how this is being spun by some quarters of the online 'media' - "PS3 to require adaptor for PS2 memory saves! How dare it!". But then, they so often forget to note that to have the option at all is GOOD NEWS, since there's no such option on the Xbox 360, and with PS2, you needed to keep your old PSone memory cards. Now you can just dump your data onto your PS3 hard disk and forget about memory cards for your old games entirely. I certainly would not expect Sony to bundle the adaptor with the PS3 - again, that they're offering an option to transfer your old game saves at all is better than what others are doing (i.e. Microsoft) and what they did themselves in the past.

Also, did he actually say anything interesting during the keynote itself? Any new or interesting comments on PS3? That's the kind of stuff that might be worth reporting on, asides from 'edgey' off-the-record exposes..

Good thing you got that photo this time, because after quoting him off the record like that, I doubt he'd be so gracious again ;)

Obviously people want to talk about the positive, not merely one blogger's view of recent PR (i.e. completely negative). A good interview would have been more balanced, and if Harrison was indicating that with his comment, it was more than justified IMO. He's done interviews before where he's been asked tough questions, but I doubt he's used to an interviewer solely dredging up the negative, so I think it was fair for him to express disappointment that you did.

hmurchison - if you go to the original source on that story, you'll see it's just Pioneer talking about their own rollout of BD players. They don't speak for the other companies. PS3 is still on track for release in Europe this year, for one.

Jason -
"lets see what happens if you can run Linux on the PS3 with that Blu-Ray drive"

The drive will most likely be inaccessible in Linux. This was the case with the Linux available for PS2 - the DVD drive was locked out - because of precisely the concerns you outline.

These are the exact same diodes used in HD-DVD drives, btw. Interesting that Sony is one of only two suppliers..I doubt they'd be handing any to HD-DVD customers ;) One can imagine supply is only much tighter for those customers, but then again, there are much fewer of them, with lower volume products.