Is this so odd when Sony is marketing the PS3 as something more than a console? No wonder that people expect it to actually do the same tasks as a computer then.
A computer or a digital entertainment center? I have yet to see a single television ad, newspaper brochure, or store display advertising the PS3 as a computer replacement here in the U.S. Maybe things are different elsewhere in the world.
Sure, Sony has provisions to use the PS3 like a computer if you really, really want to. But nearly every major game console from the Intellivision to the Dreamcast has had some sort of computer expansion option, and none were very successful. Heck, the PS2 even had an official version of Linux, but you don't see a community of people using PS2s as Linux boxen. How is that any different than the PS3?
I'm sure it's also more than a coincidence that the people on these forums who most want to see the PS3 as a computer are also people who want to use OS4. I bet if affordable, reliable hardware had ever become available for OS4, none of those people would give the PS3 a second glance; they just see the PS3 as a last chance for OS4 because it has a PPC architecture. If a digital camera based on PPC came out, they'd be all over that as a "computer" too.