Question about the PS3?

Question

I am getting a PS3 in about a week but I know nothing about the system. I will probably get the 60gb version. How do you get updates for the system? How do you hook it up to the internet. Also I heard that you can load some kind of operating system onto it. What is the operating system called, where can I get it, how much does it cost and what can it do? Sorry for so many questions but I just want to make sure that I understand what the system can do before I buy it.

Answer 1

Well first off let me say good choice on your purchase. Now the 60 GB version is the version to get, it has full hardware backward compatibility for PS2 games. Getting updates to the system is easy there are a couple of ways to do it, first would be to connect it to an internet connection and then allow it to search for updates, it download the updates and then install them. The other way is to download them from a computer copy them to a usb flash drive and plug the flash drive into the usb slot on the PS3.

The system can be loaded with an additional operating system and it's called Linux. You may have heard of it from computing circles, it's that same computer operating system that can be installed in addition to the PS3 OS. There are several different ways to get that software onto your PS3, I've provided a link to Sony's website that privdes information on loading your PS3 with a Linux distro. Yellow Dog Linux has made a specific distro for use with the PS3, but any distro for the PowerPC platform will work with the PS3. The cost, for most of the linux distros is free, but you can purchase like a disc along with support from most of the publishers (Red Hat, Yellow Dog, etc...)
Hope this helps.
BTW, I've also included a link to an awesome article that goes through the installation of at least a couple distros of linux on your PS3 (gearlog article).

Answer 2

1). You can download updates on your PC, than transfer them through flash, external HDD or PSP(make sure you download it from proper source - american PS3 must get update from official american site, european from european Sony page). If your PS3 is connected to internet - the system will offer you upgrade automatically. Latest one now is 1.93
2). The best way to plug in your PS3 is through router with VPN support, you can go with wired or wi-fi versions, however wired one is more stable.
3). You can install Linux Yellow Dog or Linux Ubuntu OS. Download YD for free from here - http://linux.softpedia.com/get/System/Operating-Systems/Linux-Distributions/Yellow-Dog-Linux-10407.shtml
Ubuntu - http://linux.softpedia.com/get/System/Operating-Systems/Linux-Distributions/Ubuntu-Linux-936.shtml
4). Enjoy, if you have more questions - feel free to contact me.
:-)