![]() It would be a huge boon for non-Windows gaming if that driver was made available by AMD, but that’s probably too much to hope for. ![]() Presumably, AMD developed a Catalyst driver specifically for Sony. For a start, FreeBSD doesn’t have an official Catalyst driver - but the PS4 is powered by a GPU that’s very similar to the Radeon 7870. If the PS4 does indeed run a modified version of FreeBSD, we can draw some interesting conclusions. It’s also worth noting that the PS3 operating system, CellOS, is also rumored to be based on FreeBSD - if Sony already has extensive experience with FreeBSD, it would make sense to stick with it. In general, BSD licenses are much more desirable for commercial enterprises. Unlike Linux’s GPL license, which compels anyone who modifies the code to publicly release any changes they make, the BSD license allows Sony to do whatever it likes with the code no matter how many changes it makes, Sony never has to share them. It isn’t wholly surprising that Sony opted to construct the PS4 on top of a FreeBSD foundation: FreeBSD is one of the most mature and stable operating systems out there, and it’s licensed in such a way that Sony can use as much or as little as the code as it likes, and use it for commercial purposes without kicking any royalties back to the developers. From GRUB, developers can choose between a text-only console version of Orbis OS (primarily for debugging), or a full version with graphics and audio services loaded (i.e. After selecting Orbis OS, a modified version of FreeBSD with a bunch of PS4-specific libraries appears to load. Orbis, as you may already know, is the PS4′s codename. The screenshots clearly show the GNU GRUB bootloader, with an option to boot into Orbis OS. This information comes from leaked photos of the second-generation development kit, which reportedly started shipping to game developers back in November 2012. In theory, with a bit of work, this means you could almost take a PS4 game and run it on a Linux PC - but don’t get your hopes up for some kind of Linux gaming renaissance. FreeBSD is a free version of BSD Unix that is generally fairly compatible with most Linux applications, and to the untrained eye a BSD-based system looks a lot like Linux. The PS4, which is scheduled to be released in November at the delightful price of $400, appears to run an operating system called Orbis OS, which is a modified version of FreeBSD 9.0.
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