It looks like Linux has been confirmed for the PS3. Terra Soft Solutions today announced that:

Yellow Dog Linux v5.0, Terra Soft’s next generation Linux operating system for Power will support PLAYSTATION 3, providing an end-user experience far surpassing previous versions.

Under basic agreement with SCEI, Terra Soft was granted a unique opportunity to develop and bring to market a complete Linux OS for the Sony PLAYSTATION 3.

The most interesting thing about this to me is the fact Enlightenment E17 will be the desktop environment of choice for possibly thousands of new Linux users. I’ve flirted with E quite a few times in nearly 10 years since it’s original release. It has always been the most beautiful, elegant and revolutionary window manager and then desktop environment out there.  The ability to customize Enlightenment to what ever suits your taste is one of the best things about it and I hope this is maintained in the PS3 release and it’s not locked down by Sony.

I’m guessing that YDL Linux will run in a Cell Secure Processing Vault to try and prevent any backdoors which could allow the execution of backup copies and such from within the Linux environment. YDL v5.0 will be available through YDL.net Enhanced accounts, through the Terra Soft on-line Store, retailers, and public mirrors world-wide. The PS3 is starting to look very tempting again, even with it’s high price tag.