Sony Removes "Other OS" Option for PS3

[Legion]

It doesn't sound like they are taking away anything important, but I do love it when companies try and sell changes to their consumer base:

"In addition, disabling the 'Other OS' feature will help ensure that PS3 owners will continue to have access to the broad range of gaming and entertainment content from SCE and its content partners on a more secure system," SCEA corporate communications director Patrick Seybold said.

It seems completely unnecessary for them to add the bold part.

 

[Cherry Cola]

It is not a massive blow to that much of the community but I was using the linux partition to play around with cell Processor programming it really sucks that they are taking it away.

At first I was horribly pissed but the more I think about it the more I can understand where they are coming from. It is too bad that a couple of crackers have caused this hammer to fall.

As a 360 owner, what does this mean for you guys? (Apart from the obvious)

As a PS3 owner... I want to know that too.

I'm not very technical.

Basically the older fat ps3's had a other OS option where you could install and run linux from your ps3 it would put aside 10GB of hard drive space to install a linux distro. It was nice because it ran decent depending on the distro you had and with the cell SDK you could play with programming for cell processors without having to run some really bad emulation systems. MIT and many other schools and such used the machine for teaching/implementing multi-threaded cell programming. The ps3 is about half to a quarter of the cost of a stand alone cell server.

Playstation, it only does everything.

Including breaking peoples hearts.

Damn crackers ruining the world!

 

[clankwise]

He forgot rule #1 don't brag about your crimes.

 

[Mr. Mike]

This is bad. I never used it, but I know there are very niche communities who were dedicated to it. Now Sony has given them the options of:

1. Suck it up, drop the hobby and move on.

2. Become segregated from the rest of the PS3 community and never play an online game on your console again.

Sony, I am disappointed. I expected MS to pull this sort of move. Hopefully they'll compensate like MS did for Halo 2.

 

[Nova5]

Judging by other comments, I'll be one of the few people legitimately annoyed by this.

We use the PS3 as an entertainment/media center as well as a gaming console. Due to the Playstation's Game OS having codec issues with about 1/2 of the files I try to play off the damn thing, it was much simpler to install Ubuntu (PS3) and VLC player.

While this may not be the biggest loss the PS3 has suffered, it seems like all the 'awesome' features that once justified its price tag have all slowly whittled away over time. This only adds to that.

He forgot rule #1 don't brag about your crimes.

Hacking a console isn't a crime. If anything, this kid's going to get scooped up by some major development/security firm with a higher paying job than any of us Escapists can imagine. This is the same kid who hacked the iPhone when he was 17.

 

[johnman]

That seems rather Arbitary,we were finally getting some decent console/computer convergence and they remove it. Despite it slack of use the Other Os option was a true step forward in gaming technology, turning the console from an over priced games machine in to a jack of all trades.

 

[ShadowKatt]

As a 360 owner, what does this mean for you guys? (Apart from the obvious)

It doesn't mean anything, it reaffirms the fact that Sony, the electronics goliath who has been turning a large part of their corperation to the gaming market, is committing economic suicide to punishing its consumers for using their products. .

 

[midpipps]

Judging by other comments, I'll be one of the few people legitimately annoyed by this.

We use the PS3 as an entertainment/media center as well as a gaming console. Due to the Playstation's Game OS having codec issues with about 1/2 of the files I try to play off the damn thing, it was much simpler to install Ubuntu (PS3) and VLC player.

While this may not be the biggest loss the PS3 has suffered, it seems like all the 'awesome' features that once justified its price tag have all slowly whittled away over time. This only adds to that.

He forgot rule #1 don't brag about your crimes.

Hacking a console isn't a crime. If anything, this kid's going to get scooped up by some major development/security firm with a higher paying job than any of us Escapists can imagine. This is the same kid who hacked the iPhone when he was 17.

Actually I am pretty sure in the eula you will find something about not cracking the software.
From US EULA
You may not attempt to hack or reverse engineer any code or equipment in connection with PSN.
You may not modify or attempt to modify the online client, disc, save file, server, client-server communication, or other parts of any game title, or content.
You may not use, make, or distribute unauthorized software or hardware in conjunction with PSN, or take or use any data from PSN to design, develop or update unauthorized software or hardware, including but not limited to cheat code software or devices that circumvent any security features or limitations included on any software or devices.

AND

You may not lease, rent, sublicense, publish, modify, adapt, or translate any portion of the System Software. To the fullest extent permitted by law, you may not reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble any portion of the System Software, or create any derivative works, or otherwise attempt to create System Software source code from its object code. You may not (i) use any unauthorized, illegal, counterfeit, or modified hardware or software in connection with the System Software, including use of tools to bypass, disable, or circumvent any encryption, security, or authentication mechanism for the PS3? system; (ii) violate any laws, regulations or statutes, or rights of SCE, its affiliated companies, or third parties in connection with your access to or use of the System Software, including the access, use, or distribution of any software or hardware that you know or should have known to be infringing or pirated; (iii) use any hardware or software to cause the System Software to accept or use unauthorized, illegal, or pirated software or hardware; (iv) obtain the System Software in any manner other than through SCE's authorized distribution methods; or (v) exploit the System Software in any manner other than to use it in your PS3? system in accordance with the accompanying documentation and with authorized software or hardware, including use of the System Software to design, develop, update, or distribute unauthorized software or hardware for use in connection with the PS3? system for any reason. Without limiting the scope of SCE's remedies, any violation of these restrictions will void the PS3? system's warranty and affect your ability to obtain warranty services and repair services from SCE or its affiliated companies.

 

[BlindMessiah94]

I like how the PS3 was originally advertised with such a high sticker price because it was more than a console, it was a powerful computer, and a Blu Ray player...

Now Blu Ray players are cheap and apparently you can't use the PS3 as a computer anymore.

So...it's an overpriced console?

 

[DancePuppets]

That's quite sad as it was one of the features it was marketed with, must admit I've never used it, but for those who did its a bit of a blow :-(

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

Sony shafting its loyal fan base, what else is new?

 

[Nova5]

Massive snip

Just because something's in a EULA doesn't mean that it's law. A good number of EULAs are designed to discourage behavior the company doesn't want to see. However, there's little to no legal precedence for the majority of it.

 

[midpipps]

Massive snip

Just because something's in a EULA doesn't mean that it's law. A good number of EULAs are designed to discourage behavior the company doesn't want to see. However, there's little to no legal precedence for the majority of it.

Actually EULA is a binding contract that you are agreeing to when using the system or service that is covered by the EULA (within reason)

 

[jasoncyrus]

Boo, not that I use the other OS option a lot, but I do use it. I was using it as a way to start learningl inux. Didn't really want to muck around with VM's or dual boots on my desktop.

This sounds like they are instead of implementing a proper fix to the operations of the Other OS they are simply disabling it and forgetting about it.

Whats next an update to disable backwards compatibility for the units that have it?

I wouldnt be surprised. Originally it wasnt supposed to have backward compatiblity and we had to fight for it.

 

[Unrulyhandbag]

Bugger, there goes my living room PC.

 

[SonicKoala]

Hmm, although I'm sure this will upset many of the more technically sophisticated PS3 users, this doesn't affect me at all.

 

[Sabretoothpanda]

They might also be doing this because organizations like the Air Force and the FBI are buying hundreds of PS3s to use in supercomputer clusters but never buy any games. Sony might just be cutting that option out of new ones so they don't lose any more money on a game-free ps3 or they're really being lazy f***ers and not even bothering to fix that exploit.

This does really suck, though. I just upgraded my drive to 80 gigs and was thinking about trying ubuntu on it.

 

[Jumplion]

Well, not a big loss as far as I see. As much as I know, not many people even use the option, so if anything it's just removing an uneeded option. What evs.

 

[Haro]

This doesn't affect me at all (I have a ps3 slim, so I never had the feature in the first place) but now I just laugh whenever I see the "It does everything" ps3 commercial.

 

[James Hueick]

fffuuuucccckkk you Sony!