The recent release of the PS3 Slim brought about joy for those who were waiting for a less expensive/smaller gaming system and indignation for those who were waiting for a Linux experimental machine of the same type as there was no "OtherOS" or Linux option on this model. Why? we cry sadly. Because, the deep, omniscient voices of two Sony representatives boom back.
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Member since:2005-07-08
The sad part is that Sony was pretty open in what concerns the PS1 and PS2 consoles.
PS1 had the NetYaroze as a homebrew version, and the PS2 got a Linux version.
Both allowed much more hardware access than what is being offered on the PS3.
Maybe Sony didn't saw the return on investment they thought would be worth, and decided to ditch the idea.
I bought a PS2 Linux, but didn't gave it as much use as I thought I would. Maybe I am one also to blame for this, don't know.
But now I am most likely to get a 360, because at least Microsoft is offering XNA to play with.
Member since:2007-04-02
well they did the same thing with ps2 linux, it doesn't work on late ps2 models
By the way linux on the ps3 is unuseful for most people since the cell it's really slow for general purpose applications, it's only good for developers that want to use the real power of the cell, and I guess that's less then 1% of ps3 userbase so sony probably did the right thing
The sad thing is that developers aren't willing to continue developing ps3 linux projects anymore since it's something that is gonna die
Member since:2008-05-26
You lost me right there. Has Apple ever released a device where they actively helped you to install a different operating system on it?
Has Apple ever released a device that runs on Linux?
Has Apple ever given you the source code of what is shipping on one of their consumer devices? (I'm not talking about Darwin, because the Darwin source code that you can download is not what ships with OS X)
Has Apple ever released a drag 'n' drop MP3 player that works on any USB-capable operating system?
Does Apple's music store provide you with THE standard file format for MP3 players, rather than providing you with a format that only 10-20% of MP3 players (including iPods) can play?
Until you can answer Yes to all these questions, then Sony's garden has acreage out the back, by comparison.
Member since:2009-04-01
Member since:2005-08-09
Member since:
2006-10-20
Sony is just like Apple with the iPhone. They want you in their walled garden. They are not trying to sell you a pc. They are trying to sell you a games console to make them some money. They also want to sell you movies, anime and games. The minute Sony locked down the PS3s GPU anyone who wanted to run linux on the ps3 should have run screaming from the platform. It is obvious Sony don't give a damn about people owning their hardware and that we are all just "licensees" to them. This is why I never bought a PS3 and why a friend of mine sold his. He wanted it for a home set top box but sony only allow their preapproved rubbish on it. Not worth the time/hastle. The people saying that Sony allowing Linux on the platform helped to curb hardware hacking are probably right.
You open your system but make the GPU a pain, people give up and move on. You try to close the entire system and people try to hack it open. By openning the system enough to get linux on, but not too much. Sony has ensured that noone is throwing large resources at cracking the platform for both piracy and homebrew. Half the homebrew community is probably thinking you can homebrew ps3 already. The other half wants GPU access but doesn't know howto get it. The piracy scene is looking at bluray as being expensive as hell, and they don't have enough hardware hackers interested in probing the ps3 platform because all that's left to probe is the GPU and security system. Vs having the entire platform to explore. A lot of hardware hackers do it because they find interesting things along the way. With the PS3 most of the mystery has been revealed. There's just that 10% of hard work which most hardware hackers don't really care about. Breaking encryption is usually a means to an end for them. That end is usually knowledge of the system and getting 1-2 uses out of the object other than what it was originally intended for. With PS3 there is no mystery. Just a stupid locked down GPU and a copy protection encryption scheme that's in hardware and is annoying to break. Noone is interested in breaking in.
Edited 2009-08-28 01:34 UTC