Anyone here using the "OtherOS" feature on their PS3's? You won't be after 3.21!

M

MatDef

Supreme [H]ardness
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http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/28/older-ps3s-losing-install-other-os-option-in-thursdays-firmwa/

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2010/03/28/ps3-firmware-v3-21-update/

First of all, I'd like to give a big "fuck you" to sony for pulling out a feature I've already bought and paid for due to bullshit "security concerns." :mad:

As one of the (few, I'm sure) people who actually used this feature, I'm pissed that sony has decided to arbitrarily pull something that I was using due to one guy claiming that the ps3 was cracked (it wasn't, and you still can't play burned games).

Anyone else pissed about this?

Edit: And if this is indeed an april fools prank, it's pretty damn unfunny.
 
Yeah this pisses me off.....but glad I got 2 ps3's that I havent updated for quite some time....hopefully there will be a hack sometime in the future so I can still say a big F U to sony for doing this..
 
Wow. This is really dumb. I actually know of a guy who uses his PS3 as his main workstation. Not anymore, I guess.
 
It has to be because of how close PS3 megabox is coming to running like the xbox media center...
 
umm who cares, it was a stupid feature to offer any ways. if you want to play with using other OS's use a PC. we all have at least one, or two.
 
Why'd Sony even have the feature in the first place? Isn't that kind of like Microsoft having an option to install OSX?
 
Mac[X-D];1035519901 said:
well i am guessing they are not using them to browse the PSN so they just need not update them and all is good.
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Indeed, but the original comment was "who cares"; even if they just don't need to update I would think they might care a little bit.
 
I find it amusing that Sony keeps removing features from the PS3.
 
I'm sure the airforce doesn't care at all and is able to flah what ever firmware they want to their device, probably with assistance from Sony to boot.
 
MisterSkills said:
I'm sure the airforce doesn't care at all and is able to flah what ever firmware they want to their device, probably with assistance from Sony to boot.
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Very unlikely; Sony would never trust the Air Force with that much access.
 
Yeah, I personally don't use the 'Other OS' feature, but Sony removing the option is a pretty schystee move.
 
Domingo said:
I find it amusing that Sony keeps removing features from the PS3.
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Me too. I mean, the original 60gb PS3 was awesome. Full backwards compatibility with all Playstation titles, memory card slots in the front, 4 usb slots in the front... I don't even understand why they need to remove this feature. I guess you can void it if you just don't connect to the internet or refuse to do it but I just don't see the point.

I saw a good comment on Engadget about this. The writer put," Whatever happened to "It Only Does Everthing?""
 
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zamardii said:
Me too. I mean, the original 60gb PS3 was awesome. Full backwards compatibility with all Playstation titles, memory card slots in the front, 4 usb slots in the front... I don't even understand why they need to remove this feature. I guess you can void it if you just don't connect to the internet or refuse to do it but I just don't see the point.
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Does Sony do the "force update" on new games thing? I know on the 360 it does this, don't remember if the PS3 had such a "feature".
 
did have linux on my old ps3... stopped using it cause it was relatively slow.
 
That feature was pretty bad anyways because Sony locks the OS inside a virtual machine, making it impossible to access all the hardware features of the PS3. No cell, no rsx engine. Lame. Good riddance imo.
 
ok let me get this straight, Sony put in a lot of stuff into the original PS3 that ultimately made very expensive and that hurt sales a long with a weak library, So over time they have been removing some of these items and launching the slim, to what i assume does bring down cost so they can increase sales, but still keeping functionality and options that MS would never support, and people who already own PS3 and haven't used the os feature think its a dick move.

so when is Sony allowed to be a capitalistic company? it is what it is it really isn't going to change anything.

Oh and if they start charging for PSN i will pay just like i pay XBL.
 
Domingo said:
I find it amusing that Sony keeps removing features from the PS3.
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The amount of features added since launch heavily outweighs what they have removed.

Also, this is the first real update that will be "taking away" a feature. The only other "feature taken away" was BC and that wasn't truly taken away, they just stopped building new models with that feature. Previous units still have it intact.

Another note, it's already known that all PS3 slims cannot install an OS. The % of people who own a PS3 currently and use this feature is very low, and honestly isn't worth the time. As others have stated, it's very slow, and not all of the hardware can be accessed.

Neb: Sony does not force you to update, unless you want to connect to their services. If your PS3 is connected to the internet, you turn it on and try to login or access the store, it will tell you 'an update is required'. If you want to play games online, an update will be required. To continue playing games you already have in single player, play music or movies, you can continue to do so without having to update.
 
Baker said:
The amount of features added since launch heavily outweighs what they have removed.

Also, this is the first real update that will be "taking away" a feature. The only other "feature taken away" was BC and that wasn't truly taken away, they just stopped building new models with that feature. Previous units still have it intact.
.
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Do the new ones play SACD? I know my 40GB model can't but the 20/60 could.
 
Is this for real? Supposedly this 'update' will be released on April Fool's day...
 
Baker said:
The amount of features added since launch heavily outweighs what they have removed.

Also, this is the first real update that will be "taking away" a feature. The only other "feature taken away" was BC and that wasn't truly taken away, they just stopped building new models with that feature. Previous units still have it intact.

Another note, it's already known that all PS3 slims cannot install an OS. The % of people who own a PS3 currently and use this feature is very low, and honestly isn't worth the time. As others have stated, it's very slow, and not all of the hardware can be accessed.

Neb: Sony does not force you to update, unless you want to connect to their services. If your PS3 is connected to the internet, you turn it on and try to login or access the store, it will tell you 'an update is required'. If you want to play games online, an update will be required. To continue playing games you already have in single player, play music or movies, you can continue to do so without having to update.
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IMO, they're stripping out HUGE features that sold people originally. Backwards compatibility? Running linux? Those are two pretty big things. What next.. bluray support? ;)
 
The new slims for sure don't play SACDs. I think that feature was removed starting on fat models with a .65nm cell and rsx.

As for them removing the other os option, that sucks, but I doubt they're doing it to be mean. I'm sure those geohot blogs posts had them on their toes. Sony might have discovered a loophole with other os that could allow a hacker to eventually defeat the security. If that's the case, they wouldn't take a 2% chance of a crack, to save linux support. Anything to avoid another PSP fiasco.
 
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wags said:
Is this for real? Supposedly this 'update' will be released on April Fool's day...
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If it is April Fool's, I'd hope for something more outrageous, like removing video-out support to enforce DRM. :p
 
While I think removing an advertised feature is pretty reprehensible, I expect any PR and legal fallout from something like this is going to amount to fart in a storm compared to the ramifications of leaving it in as an attack vector to compromise the PS3s security. And as it stands it is easily the biggest such vector.

All the ranting (in various forums) from people claiming they are using a PS3 as their "primary workstation" is pretty comical. Sure, it's a great box for performing vectorizable or parellelizable math operations at very high-speed - but if you're using the PS3 AS a workstation, rather than for just running computations, then I'd have to question your sanity.

Most amusing to me is all the threats from people that are going to "File a class action law-suit". Which of course just makes them look mouthy and clueless tossers, since that's not how class-action suits are done.
 
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Torq said:
While I think removing an advertised feature is pretty reprehensible, I expect any PR and legal fallout from something like this is going to amount to fart in a storm compared to the ramifications of leaving it in as an attack vector to compromise the PS3s security. And as it stands it is easily the biggest such vector.

All the ranting (in various forums) from people claiming they are using a PS3 as their "primary workstation" is pretty comical. Sure, it's a great box for performing vectorizable or parellelizable math operations at very high-speed - but if you're using the PS3 AS a workstation, rather than for just running computations, then I'd have to question your sanity.

Most amusing to me is all the threats from people that are going to "File a class action law-suit". Which of course just makes them look mouthy and clueless tossers, since that's now hot class-action suits are done.
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I really do not think enough people actually used the feature enough to generate a PR hit for Sony. It was fun to try for a few minutes, however that was about it.
 
i had a dabble with it a few years back and used it as my primary workstation whilst i saved up for a new pc as my previous one bust, it was pretty cool at the time, now i dont really give a fuck. nobody cared on this forum then so i dont see what all the fuss is about, are you all gonna start using it or something?
 
inotocracy said:
IMO, they're stripping out HUGE features that sold people originally. Backwards compatibility? Running linux? Those are two pretty big things. What next.. bluray support? ;)
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Huge features that sold people originally? Are you joking? haha, well I laughed, because I don't know anyone, in real life or online who went out of their way "originally" (which I assume you mean towards launch?) to get a PS3 because they can install Linux on it. $600 bucks for a shoddy work station that can barely run Linux, yea ok.

I had BC before my 60G died. To be honest, I used it for when GoW2 came out, and didn't use it again before it had died. Realistically BC is way over-rated. I have my PS2 still, and all of its games, in a box, in the closet, because my PS3 library consists of over 30 games now, which I don't even have time to finish half of those.

Some people just like to rant and rave over things that just don't matter. :rolleyes:
 
Baker said:
Huge features that sold people originally? Are you joking? haha, well I laughed, because I don't know anyone, in real life or online who went out of their way "originally" (which I assume you mean towards launch?) to get a PS3 because they can install Linux on it. $600 bucks for a shoddy work station that can barely run Linux, yea ok.

I had BC before my 60G died. To be honest, I used it for when GoW2 came out, and didn't use it again before it had died. Realistically BC is way over-rated. I have my PS2 still, and all of its games, in a box, in the closet, because my PS3 library consists of over 30 games now, which I don't even have time to finish half of those.

Some people just like to rant and rave over things that just don't matter. :rolleyes:
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Sure, they're the minority, but they exist. Plenty of people bought a PS3 just because it could replace their PS2, with it having backwards compatibility, and thought they could do some interesting and alternative things since it had Linux support. And yes, while Linux wasn't a plus to you, it was a plus to me and any other hobbyist.
 
Baker said:
Neb: Sony does not force you to update, unless you want to connect to their services. If your PS3 is connected to the internet, you turn it on and try to login or access the store, it will tell you 'an update is required'. If you want to play games online, an update will be required. To continue playing games you already have in single player, play music or movies, you can continue to do so without having to update.
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Some games do in fact require certain updates. Some of those games even include the minimum firmware update on the disc.




**and seriously, allowing Linux to ride unchecked on PS3 and lead to further hacking and maybe even figuring a way to crack the thing without needing linux at all---is a sure fire way for SONY to lose 3rd party developer and publisher support. In this day when game companies are so damn scared that they will DRM their games to the point of barely being playable and/or stable, you can bet withdrawing support is exactly what would happen. That is waaaay more important than being able to use your PS3 as a slow and handicapped PC or loading up the same backlog of old ass games that run on everything else that you have that already is hackable.

The PS3 is already a pretty damn sweet media center so I don't see the appeal in getting one of those apps up and running.
 
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zamardii said:
Me too. I mean, the original 60gb PS3 was awesome. Full backwards compatibility with all Playstation titles, memory card slots in the front, 4 usb slots in the front... I don't even understand why they need to remove this feature. I guess you can void it if you just don't connect to the internet or refuse to do it but I just don't see the point.

I saw a good comment on Engadget about this. The writer put," Whatever happened to "It Only Does Everthing?""
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New Title

"It only does less than it used to when we launched it."
 
Baker said:
Some people just like to rant and rave over things that just don't matter. :rolleyes:
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And this here folks sums it up nicely. For the record, this thread is generating more replies then the actual Linux PS3 threads from the past. It just goes to show , that some people are actually more concerned on creating drama to make the workday go by faster, just saying :D
 
Sixthsense said:
And this here folks sums it up nicely. For the record, this thread is generating more replies then the actual Linux PS3 threads from the past. It just goes to show , that some people are actually more concerned on creating drama to make the workday go by faster, just saying :D
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So true. Drama makes the workday go faster!
 
Ubuntu was a bit slow on it. I didn't get enough seat time to emu on it, esp MAME. I got the SNES emu going, but ultimately I want to build a dedicated cab to do that.

Else the PS3 has been great playing back movies, music from MediaTomb on my server - 'till it YLOD a few days ago.
 
Thanks Sony.

Asshats.

"Hi,
I am stepping down as the spu backend maintainer since Sony removed
GNU/Linux (OtherOS) support from their newer PS3 firmware. The main
reason is I will no longer have access to a machine to support the
target. But really this is also a step backwards for free software
support from Sony.

Thanks,
Andrew Pinski

ChangeLog:

* MAINTAINERS (spu port): Remove me." -- http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg50018.html
 
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