Topic: PS3 losing Linux

[TJ Spyke]

Sony has announced that one of the changes made in the April firmware update (which will be required to access the PlayStation Network, play certain games, etc.), is that they are removing the "Install other OS" option. This is the feature that let people install Linux and similar systems, which also let people develop homebrew games. They claim it will improve the system for consumers, which is obvious bull. The only people who benefit from removing it (which is what they touted as one of the major features of the system at launch and why it was supposedly wortth $500/$600) is Sony, since this feature is what allowed people to pirate games and is how that guy hacked the PS3 recently. I personally have never installed another OS, but there was no reason to actually remove it (at least when they removed BC they could say it saved them money, even if it was only like $1 per system).
 
Has anybody here actually installed another OS on their PS3? The reports I am reading sounds like it will disable them eith the update (rather than just stopping you from installing again), but I can't verify that.

[KDR_11k]

Many people probably included that in their purchase rationale back in the day so now they'll feel cheated.

PS3: It only does what we want it to!

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Promise the world, then take it away.  I'm sure there's more they can remove after this as well.

[broodwars]

I wonder if this is an overreaction to the PS3 allegedly being hacked, so now they're trying to lock down any features that could be used to exploit the system now that it's in the open?  Otherwise, I really don't see what Sony gets out of this besides unnecessarily pissing .01% of their audience off.

[Guitar Smasher]

This is kind of a secondary question, but if I'm not mistaken, did Sony try to sell the PS3 as a computer at launch (possibly getting a better tax status)?  If they were successful with that, wouldn't this OS removal renege on this?

[Chozo Ghost]

Is there really any need for them to do this? They've already stripped out the "Install Other OS" feature from the Slim model. They don't make the older models anymore, and those didn't sell all that much on account of being $600 so its not like the ability to install Linux is widespread or anything. So why do they want to stomp it out of the limited number of systems that still can?

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

This is kind of a secondary question, but if I'm not mistaken, did Sony try to sell the PS3 as a computer at launch (possibly getting a better tax status)?  If they were successful with that, wouldn't this OS removal renege on this?

Sony looked at Wii and figured out that "game systems" sell better.

[TJ Spyke]

Some companies did use the Linux on PS3 to treat it as a supercomputer. I was reading info on this at another site and they mentioned one guy talked about how this feature let him make the equivalent of a $50,000 supercomputer for about $5,000.

[NWR_insanolord]

I'm guessing that guy probably doesn't need to be able to log in to PSN or play newer games.

[Stogi]

Linux SUCKED on PS3 anyways. It didn't have enough RAM access to run ****. SO I don't really give a ****.

[BranDonk Kong]

But it will soon. Geohot is going to "look into" making CFW for the PS3 now, since Sony is making such a pointless move.

[D_Average]

Some companies did use the Linux on PS3 to treat it as a supercomputer. I was reading info on this at another site and they mentioned one guy talked about how this feature let him make the equivalent of a $50,000 supercomputer for about $5,000.

Thats true.  I heard of a company that had 100 or so networked up for that very reason.

[stevey]

I smell this blowing up in sony's face, by either a lawsuit or hackers tearing the PS3 a new one.

Also this marks the end of using the PS3 as a cheap Wii dev kit

[Adrock]

This was only a matter of time seeing as the Slim model did away with Linux support. I find it ironic that Nintendo gets slack for not including X and Y on the Wii, but Sony spent the last 3 years taking stuff away from PS3. I remember when PS3 was first unveiled and it was supposed to have something like 19 USB ports and 10 SD card slots and Kaz Hirai was on his "PS3 is a computer, motherf*ckers" kick. Those were the days... at least it had backwards compatibility...

[ShyGuy]

Linux dumped the PS3 and traded up.

[Guitar Smasher]

This was only a matter of time seeing as the Slim model did away with Linux support. I find it ironic that Nintendo gets slack for not including X and Y on the Wii, but Sony spent the last 3 years taking stuff away from PS3. I remember when PS3 was first unveiled and it was supposed to have something like 19 USB ports and 10 SD card slots and Kaz Hirai was on his "PS3 is a computer, motherf*ckers" kick. Those were the days... at least it had backwards compatibility...

PS3: It only did everything...

/unoriginal joke

[Chozo Ghost]

Some companies did use the Linux on PS3 to treat it as a supercomputer. I was reading info on this at another site and they mentioned one guy talked about how this feature let him make the equivalent of a $50,000 supercomputer for about $5,000.

Which will be fine until his 10 year old kid installs the latest patch and bricks the whole thing.

[Chozo Ghost]

I smell this blowing up in sony's face, by either a lawsuit or hackers tearing the PS3 a new one.

I can see that happening. Even though Sony stripped it out of the Slim model it was still present in the old models, but now that they're removing it from the old models as well I can see hackers stepping up their efforts to break the encryptions and crap so they can get Linux any which way you can.

Someone who wants to get into a building will always use a door that's open instead of the locked door right next to it. Its easier, and either way it gets you into the building so why try to pick the lock or break the door down when an open door is nearby? But now that both doors are closed and locked the PS3 will probably have more people attacking its locked doors with crowbars, sledgehammers, whatever.

So the bottom line is Sony was better off leaving that Linux ability alone, but now that they've removed it they are going to piss off the hacking crowd and they are going to see them step up their efforts to hack and crack.

[NWR_Lindy]

Anybody that's using this feature for a Linux supercomputer simply doesn't need to install the update.  If they're using their PS3s for that I highly doubt they're sitting there using them to play God of War III.

[Chozo Ghost]

Anybody that's using this feature for a Linux supercomputer simply doesn't need to install the update.  If they're using their PS3s for that I highly doubt they're sitting there using them to play God of War III.

But there are people who want to use their PS3 as a Linux computer and are also interested in the gaming aspect of it. They aren't researchers trying to unlock the meaning of everything, they just want a cheap Linux PC to do their PC stuff on, but also be able to play the PS3 games too.

[NWR_Lindy]

While true, the amount of people doing this is crazy small.  Everybody trolls Sony for not realizing that the PS3 is a game machine, but when they actually move it in that direction everybody bitches.  I don't get it.

[BlackNMild2k1]

Well to be fair Sony did sell the system as a supercomputer that also plays games, so it's understandable that people that were using it for that would be upset now that it's a game machine that used to do Linux.

[TJ Spyke]

Lindy, I think the main reason people are complaining is that stripping this feature is useless. It doesn't save Sony any money (whereas they could legit say that they saved money by removing backwards compatibility) and just pisses off the people who use the feature. It seems suspicious that this "safety" update came right after someone managed to finally hack the PS3.

[stevey]

While true, the amount of people doing this is crazy small.  Everybody trolls Sony for not realizing that the PS3 is a game machine, but when they actually move it in that direction everybody bitches.  I don't get it.

That not true, there is actually a lot of people who use PS3s only for it's Linux support and not gaming (hence they don't post on gaming forums). Oddly enough, the day after this announcement I ended up talking to someone who only bought a PS3 solely for it's "cheap" cell processor computing and spent a good deal of time playing around with his 3D VR gadgets that had true force feedback to interaction with objects in the simulation and mocking his medical rehab power glove 2.0 program all of which is on a PS3 running Linux.

And for stuff like medical research that going on in multiple states, it kind of makes sense to use a PS3 since you can't expect everyone to have the same exact PC so with a PS3 you know that everyone sees is exactly the thing without extraneous variations in the data due to different machines, which is what you want in well controlled scientific research.

[Chozo Ghost]

While true, the amount of people doing this is crazy small.  Everybody trolls Sony for not realizing that the PS3 is a game machine, but when they actually move it in that direction everybody bitches.  I don't get it.

I'm happy Nintendo focuses mainly on gaming, but I would be pretty pissed off if they put out a patch that stripped out the Internet Channel. Wouldn't you? Its one thing to never add a feature in the first place, but once you do add it I think its wrong to just take it away after consumers have spent $600 on it.