PS3 update to rid all consoles of Linux support

Owners

Well, apparently the £230 I dropped on the console doesn't make me the owner. Silly me. Maybe Sony can rent them to us in the future.

And to forestall the 'just don't install the update' crowd - that still cripples it as Sony enforces a 'leper' policy on users who do not have the update from getting onto the PSN - something they are allowed to do but basically enforces the 'no choice' mantra.

And I don't even 'USE' Linux on my PS3 (I have a slim) - but this still annoys me - what's next to go?

False sale?

So they sold the PS3 using false advertising with features which are then removed once the buyer has been suckered in. Class action coming up if they follow through me thinks.

So, isn't bait and switch illegal?

Surely selling a product on the basis that it has certain functionality and then removing that functionality counts as a form of bait and switch?

Great.

So is Sony going to repartition my hard drive to give me back the space used by Linux or just stop me from booting into it?

Thanks Sony.

Ah, yes... This makes a lot of sense

Unfortunately, Sony, you'd be disabling an advertised feature after an item has been purchased, and that's a big legal no-no! Expect to be sued by nerds, gamers, educational insititions, and the US military (who have used clustered PS3s in supercomputer scenarios).

For those US folks interested in joining a class-action lawsuit over this, consider visiting the following link: http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1598432&cid=31653602

Anybody want to start a similar thing up for the UK?

Not happy

So, so, soooo not happy. If it comes down to buying quality Sony content from the playstation store by letting go of features that drew me to the console in the first place, then they're just going to have to miss out on more money. Who ever heard of making something less value-for-money to keep customers?

Great market research strategy!

Post a message designed to really annoy those few that use OtherOs.

Watch the unfolding of strongly worded opinion flow around the net.

Gather data about what percentage of owners would miss the feature more and why.

If too many possibly paying public react negatively - April Fool! Withdraw statement and move quietly on.

If only the hacking community strongly object, then Sony wouldn't lose out as much due to games and services probably not top of that demographic's list - put update out, claim it for the benefit of all mankind.

Sorted...

My arse...

"The consumer electronics giant said that the update will be optional"

Yea right, some choice. Bastards.

No biggy

Pretty crappy hardware for Linux anyway, given that access to all the good stuff is forbidden.

Not that this will stop anyone.

It was only a way to make it easy. Now Sony have Penguinistas grumbling at them.

Still, it's not an Eggbox Fiasco yet.

a clue...

An email "sent by a Sony staffer" Is not an official statement of intent...

Both you AND slashdot should understand that.. It's not a hard concept to grasp..

April Fool

FFS, El Reg, you're only doing this to get a rise out of me, aren't you?

Oh...

Crap...

Apparent blubberings from sony PR rep noted.

Nooooooooo.....

It's been reported on slashdot too.....

PS3 Slim sans OtherOS ? Slap in the face.

This alleged 'upgrade'? An alleged kick in the knackers.

SONY, DO NOT DO THIS!

Think about it. How much of your interests have been actually pirated? You stand to alienate (even more) a small minority of your users for dubious tangible gain.

Guess what? If this is indeed true, henceforth, if I want to play a console game, I am buying an xbox. No way am I knackering my ps3 box that I've lovingly honed and tuned over these few years. You will lose a customer and gain an adversary. I will personally make sure that as many people as possible are aware of your betrayal. Yes, I'm going to QQ. Not that I expect you'll care, but I'll do it anyway. You'll perhaps lose some business, I would imagine. /shrug.

Refund?

Some people will have made the decision to purchase a PS3 rather than the competition purely due to the Linux support (after all that could ensure you had a computer as well as a console)

Perhaps group lawsuit? They say it's optional but it isn't really (if you want to still connect to the playstation network)

Personally I wan never interested in running Linux on a PS3 as Sony barred you from accessing the GPU... (would love to see how the cell performs though)

re: So, isn't bait and switch illegal?

So they are ALLOWED TO ADD features, but as soon as they take features away, you get upset?

The fact is, this is an OPTIONAL update, you pays yer money you take your choice. Take the additional new features coming along, or don't and just keep the 100's of existing ones that Sony have given you for free since 2006...

It's hilarious to watch the about-turn, from a gimped feature that was no use because it did not have GPU access, to suddenly becoming an essential feature you bought if for.

You realise what such an about-turn makes you look like?

An e-mail from one Sony employee isn't a commitment.

Publicising the console based on the feature, including it as a selling point in the documentation and claiming it as evidence of the power of the console, that's a commitment.

a good thing about Sony...

... is that it makes Apple look like a company that embraces open systems...

Bastards

Pure and simple.

Was going to do some development on it, well that's out of the window now.

Fuck 'em!

BS

Microsoft regularly remove functionality from firmware updates, however it does not set the internet on fire like when Sony removed a obscure, underused and previously called "gimped" feature..

http://www.xboxer.tv/2008/10/automatic_xbla_downloads_bite.html

The difference of course, is this is Sony, a foreign company, and the American press just love to hate foreign companies....

Well...

I guess the thing to do is keep two hard drives - one for gaming, and one for playing with Linux. Still very unhappy with this. How can running Linux in a hypervisor be a security risk? Unless the hypervisor isn't a particularly good one...

Really, REALLY frickin' mad!

I have a PS3. I play games on it. I also use it as a testing lab because it is the only frickin' thing that lets me run Linux on something else than shitty x86 arch processors, and has an interesting enough arch to code for.

This is one of the few times I wish I lived in the US, as I'd definitely start a class-action lawsuit against something like this!

The feature was advertised, and it is even included in the PS3 manuals ... so removing it does fall under "bait and switch" legislation. Come on guys, sue 'em!

it only does everything (but linux and ....)

>Does the firmware update do anything useful to the customer.

Probably fixed the flaw that gimps the console every four years but the way Sony is going (losing money) they might not have to worry about a gaming division in four years. This is crap news but I mean what do expect of a company so greedy and with so few ethics they believe there is nothing wrong with loading rootkits on your computer? I mean they really believe they can tell you how to use their products (you think you own the PS3 haha, try lifetime lease unless Sony revokes) and pay through the nose for the privilege. Sony the company we grew up with and loved died the day they bought a movie studio. By the way f__k the Welsh for that greedy bastard Stringer (American too but you expect that).

@yossarianuk

Clearly George Holtz is the one to blame in all of this. He let the genie out the bottle. No law in any country will not back Sony on this, they have to protect their hardware, their systems their networks.

The feature is being removed because the community cannot act in a responsible manner. You stand a FAR better chance of suing George Holtz for losing your feature... Of course that's won't happen, as the media are making him out to be the hero in all of this....

EU only chance

As much as I hate to say EU laws are the only way to fight this. American laws are way to big business friendly to waste the time. By the way blaming George Holtz for this is what the Sony astroturfers want us to do. Everything George is doing is morally correct so far because the fact is he is hacking HIS system. He is not trying to run software he doesn't own the right too. Sony is at fault because everyone else in the world has realized what a house of cards DRM is and how artificially trying to protect broken business models in the short term will only cause your business to fail in the long term. Look Sony your system has been largely unbreakable so far but how much profit are reaping these days? What you are in third place even behind lowly M$? Perhaps you should talk to Toyota about the folly of short term profits at the expense of long term customer satisfaction.

All your PS3 feature belong to us

George Holtz himself sums it up best.

"The PlayStation 3 is the only product I know that loses features throughout it's life cycle. Software PS2 emulation, SACD playback, and OtherOS support are all just software switches you can flip. It's unbelievable you would go and flip one, not just on new boxes you are shipping, but on tens of millions already in the field.

Again I'm sorry users. Sony, I expected more from you."

makes me want to hack it even more now

well I always hated Sony products in not being able to change and buy standard parts sd cards root kits etc.

I would gues more people would proberly have a better go at breaking there PS3 and be able to run what you want and maybe even flash your own updates now that would be cool.

xecuterPS3 :)

If you want to....

upvote this one:

http://share.blog.us.playstation.com/ideas/2010/03/29/dont-remove-ability-of-other-os-in-future-update/

basically asking for sony to refrain from removing OtherOS.

Sony is trying to protect the AACS keys.

Someone in a piracy-harboring nation might have already started a project.

Why isn't there a red-pill option? Permanently remove all the content protection keys from the PS3 and make it a clean Linux box.

What happens to existing Linux partition

Does anyone know what will happen to an existing Linux partition when the update is applied? Do we need to backup and format the drive to reclaim the space or will the update do this automatically?

Thanks

re: False sale?

No, there is a clause in the documentation of your PS3, that says that feature and experience may change.

Even if there wasn't, a lawsuit would never stand up, as the feature is being removed because the "community" as a whole broke it...

Also, there is nothing forcing you to take the update, just don't expect to be able to connect to secure servers with a unsecure console if you don't.

Sony are perfectly within their right to remove this, just like Microsoft were in their right when they removed features like download schedulers from NXE and forced people to take that...

All your products are belong to us said the corporations

Time to stop buying products that the manufacturer can take control away from you with. They change the rules and do it these days.

@asdf

Holtz is clearly and idiot PS2 emulation, SACD playback both relied on at least partially on hardware, which were removed because consumers whinged about the price of the PS3 initially.

He is backtracking and trying to cover himself now, as it's clear he has opened himself up for being sued...

@Muckydevil

"I purchased my old PS£ especially to run Linux... "

Then don't update.... It's not a hard concept to grasp. Nobody is forcing you to update.

Don't however expect Sony to let your insecure platform to connect to secure PSN.... It's one or the other... TIME TO CHOOSE...

However, as you said "especially to run Linux" it should be a no brainer decision for you (or do you want it all ways...).

bullcrap

>Holtz is clearly and idiot PS2 emulation, SACD playback both relied on at least partially on hardware, which were removed because consumers whinged about the price of the PS3 initially.

>He is backtracking and trying to cover himself now, as it's clear he has opened himself up for being sued...

Bullcrap. DRM will never work and just about every other company besides Sony has accepted this. At some point you have to allow your customers to see your content in plaintext or else they won't buy your stuff. You put something out there and say you can't do anything with YOUR hardware that we don't approve of and guess what, someone will. Holtzs only mistake was being so public about it. Also don't quote the DMCA as it is obviously unconstitutional and doesn't apply outside USA Inc.

http://craphound.com/msftdrm.txt

whats really going on

As has been stated elsewhere the only reason Sony even bothered with the OtherOS option was because they were trying to get the lower tariffs for computers as opposed to consumer electronics in many countries. After this ruse failed they have had zero interest in maintaining this feature. Makes sense because since when has Sony shown any interest in letting you use their hardware however YOU want. Kinda sad that the only next generation console that is really open to homebrew and still being able to play games online is the WII (token DRM protection but easily defeated).

I was getting bored with the PS3

It is a simple fact that I really don't use our PS3 much any more -- it is getting rather old in the tooth as a gaming platform and I really prefer using wasd+mouse over that annoying controller.

The only reason I have a PS3 at all is that I had a severe motorbike accident a while ago and during my recovery, my PC broke and being in a wheelchair I could not repair it so I got the PS3 to play games on; but now that I have recovered, the turn-key aspect of a game console is no longer quite so appealing to me.

If I do use our PS3, it is as a Linux box but even this I rarely exercise in favor of Linux on my PC (which is much faster). My wife still uses the PS3 to play DVD's but not Blu-Rays because the old titles that she likes work well on DVD's so again Linux (which she uses too) is just fine for that.

I enjoy tinkering with gaming hardware as much as I enjoy playing the games. But it is just too much work to consider doing very much with the PS3 (e.g., you can't just put in a new graphics device). So despite the hack, at this point it is irrelevant as I am back to PC gaming. Maybe PC gaming will go away (very possible) or maybe I will eventually become bored with PC gaming. In either outcome it does not matter there are plenty of other toys.

So in net, our PS3 is becoming superflouos. When it eventually fails, I will remove the hard disk and discard it and say good bye to Sony. It was a decent romp while it lasted.

Umm...is this PS3 mine or not?

I've got Linux installed. I upgraded the HD especailly years back. Was disappointed about it's performance, but still, as a geek, was fun to do. Still like to geek that fact out that I have Linux on my PS3 to non-geeks..In fact, my m8's thought of me when they read the news :-)

Haven't booted up using it for over a year, probably won't (think about it like an ex-girlfriend kinda thing - nice to have known)...but the important thing is that it's something I have invested time and money in, in a product I thought was mine.

Now...I could be wrong, but removing this feature is changing a feature of the product...isn't that a misrepresentation of goods problem? Let alone the whole known idea that where does ownership of a product be fully mine and partially the manafacturers?

Silly analogy:

I bought a pair of jeans coz I liked the cut...designers decided they don't think the cut is representative of their new image - they change the cut of my jeans

..."but I didn't buy those jeans"

..".well, you're making us look bad"

..."but you sold them to me like that"

...".sorry (optional apology!) kid, you don't have a choice"

..."ok, well..I'll be buying jeans from another designer next time."

..."and?"

doesn't seem right does it?

The install isn't really optional. It's only optional because I have to manually do it. If Sony could auto-update legally, they would have done.

Get in the crammed car with no space for your luggage or walk the next 30 miles in the rain?

Thanks...ya f*cker

I'm all up for a Facebook Group on this...anyone know one going? The consumer act must cover this somehow

Don't give me candy then tell me it's bad and take it away. You'll make me cry and I'll hate you and you'll be that "meany" everyone dislikes