Guys. It takes 10 years to realize its full potentials. We're not even half way yet and you're already bitching.
You're like the kid that kept asking, "Are we there yet?"

Actually, the installation is extremely easy. Put the DVD in, follow instructions on screen when it asks for timezone, language etc. Easier than indstalling, say, windows XP on any PC.

The tricky part is that you need to have some GBs partitioned for it on your HD, thus if you didn't do that as soon as you got the console, you'll have to backup your data -> format -> partition -> restore your HD data. It's certainly not something every user can do in complete peace of mind, but it's about as hard as doing the same on a pre-existing PC.

It actually runs quite well, memory limits notwithstanding. As to what it offers, I can see three main uses:

1) academic, for those who want to learn developing for the Cell architecture, or need cheap parallel stream processing

2) media playing, for those formats that are unsupported by the PS3 OS

3) gaming, as long as the GPU is not really needed and the software rendering is enough. Emulators come to mind.

wrong, it's same as on a desktop. actually way faster, i think mainly due the CPU. partition feature on XMB is even easier.

and linux is free, they don't have to pay a fee.

linux runs fine in a 256mb, xubuntu especially. only needs 192mb  for the live CD that runs everything from the CD, and it uses alot less.

@WereKitten, thank you for the explanation about removing it. It makes sense.

What games/emulators do you play? (if you play any)

I'll add, please, people using linux on their PS3, show yourself and tell us what you use it for!

i play emulators, ps1 , snes, anything from not above those gens work great with a software ratherizer.

i havent test n64 yet, but it should be possible.

and u can even use your own DS3 to play, someone made a driver.

i also experiments with some rendering, CELL is fast! you give it low/high functions in C, and it's spit them out like bullets.

WOAH. All your hardware in your home runs Linux? Microwave POOOOWER! :D

Well, it was deal breaker for me as I would have bought PS3 with linux when it would have been a bit cheaper. Now I guess, I don't have to buy it at all or try to find old PS3 in the future.

I tried!! but couldn't find the damn usb plug!