Sony Disable “Install Other OS” in firmware (v3.21)

[jonabbey]

I originally had a 10Gig partition saved off for OtherOS and I played around with YDL on it, but the lack of access to RSX and the 64 meg memory reservation in XDR for the RSX bounce buffers made it a less than wonderful experience (although Firefox on YDL was much better than the XMB browser ever was).

I also picked up a big book on Cell programming thinking I might play around with it, but never got around to bothering.

Now I have to choose between unplugging my original PS3 and putting it away for a rainy day and buying a slim, or just giving up on ever doing work on Cell.

I expect I'll just live without the Linux option, but it's pretty dirty pool for Sony to remove an advertised feature of a system I paid $600 for back in the day.

I wonder if Sony is going to announce any actual features for 3.21? If all they've got to show for four months of work on the firmware is removing Linux (not even fixing the apocalyp3e clock bug?), I'll be pretty upset.

I imagine most of their firmware team is busy implementing new for-pay features that they'll announce at E3.

Feh.

 

[corduroygt]

Which HPC applications are people running these days in PS3 Linux? Can't they be implemented similarly to folding@home with their own app? Why can't Sony make an app store with PSN like Apple, it's been 2 years since Apple came out with it, what's Sony been doing besides copying the 360 and the wii?

 

[jonabbey]

Which HPC applications are people running these days in PS3 Linux? Can't they be implemented similarly to folding@home with their own app? Why can't Sony make an app store like Apple, it's been 2 years since Apple came out with it, what's Sony doing?

Apple / NeXT has been working on the APIs and development kit that supports the iPhone since the 80's. Android's software development is based on Java, and can be developed using Eclipse on any platform.

How in the world would Joe Developer start messing around to see what can be done on the PlayStation? What would they use for development?

Certainly not Linux on PS3..

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Are they affected ? It's an enterprise tool/app. I don't think 3.21 affects them at all since it only removes gaming capability from their perspective.

I suppose so. It depends if those who bought CE-10 or whatever it was have their PS3 as a dedicated encoder or, as my friend would have if it had been any good, intended to use their PS3 entertainment box to also accelerate movie encoding. If the latter, they still want the gaming aspect, but the ability to use CE-10 will be removed, meaning that $100 or however much it was is no good to them. And this is not quite the same as a deceased platform for which you'd see your software investment go to waste - I don't lament any money I spent on Amiga/Master System software. That's because on a dead platform, as long as your hardware works you can use your software, and it's your call if you stop until the hardware breaks. Technology progresses. However, this firmware means you have to choose to 'kill' your platform yourself, either as an encoder or as a games machine, without it just naturally becoming redundant. CE-10 has been cut short by a firmware, which is more akin to a BRD player having it's ability to play DVDs removed via firmware, requiring you to buy a DVD player.

 

[patsu]

That's true and it sucks for those who use both. If the patch is security motivated, then I'd rather they take this route to save engineering time. Use the talent on GameOS, games and more flexible DRM; rather than playing cat-n-mouse with the hackers.

 

[corduroygt]

Apple / NeXT has been working on the APIs and development kit that supports the iPhone since the 80's. Android's software development is based on Java, and can be developed using Eclipse on any platform.

How in the world would Joe Developer start messing around to see what can be done on the PlayStation? What would they use for development?

Certainly not Linux on PS3..

Joe developer needs an intel Mac and an iphone/ipod touch to properly do iphone development. For PS3 development, you'd need the $2k PS3 Devkit.

 

[Alkohallick]

Current patch is 3.15, and this jumps to 3.21? Uh...not likely real, do you think?

 

[itch]

Which HPC applications are people running these days in PS3 Linux? Can't they be implemented similarly to folding@home with their own app? Why can't Sony make an app store with PSN like Apple, it's been 2 years since Apple came out with it, what's Sony been doing besides copying the 360 and the wii?

I thought they would since they announced a non-game sdk.
http://www.joystiq.com/2009/11/19/sony-to-release-non-game-dev-kits-in-q2-2010/

 

[Shifty Geezer]

For PS3 development, you'd need the $2k PS3 Devkit.

It also needs Sony approval, which from what little I've read is hard to come by. They won't supply PS3 SDK to whoever is willing to pay.

 

[patsu]

Current patch is 3.15, and this jumps to 3.21? Uh...not likely real, do you think?

They didn't take down the blog post. Should be real.
[size=-2]Go ahead, pinch yourself.[/size]

Now that you mention it, I hope 3.21 has some cool features.

 

[patsu]

I thought they would since they announced a non-game sdk.
http://www.joystiq.com/2009/11/19/sony-to-release-non-game-dev-kits-in-q2-2010/

It sounds like a very limited platform:
http://www.develop-online.net/news/34161/GDC-Sonys-Skinny-strategy-backs-non-game-apps

Called Skinny, the tool is described by the format holder as "a simple yet effective means for content holders to put their intellectual property on the PlayStation platforms without software development".

In fact Sony is claiming that content creators can develop an app using the tool in as quick as a day.

 

[bkilian]

Which HPC applications are people running these days in PS3 Linux? Can't they be implemented similarly to folding@home with their own app? Why can't Sony make an app store with PSN like Apple, it's been 2 years since Apple came out with it, what's Sony been doing besides copying the 360 and the wii?

In this case, they haven't even copied the 360, since it already has an equivalent to the "appstore" (XNA Indie games)

 

[tha_con]

Looks like Geohot has "waged war" on Sony and has threatened to make some CFW (though I don't think he's got what it takes, just all hot air).

Still, that's mighty interesting that he'd act like he's doing a good thing, when he was indeed doing something that ultimately would lead to a piracy problem.

 

[NeoTechni]

I really don't think geohot's hack was the true motivation for this; it just sounds better than 'it's not cost-effective to continue supporting Linux on PS3'.

The cost comes from updating it with drivers for new hardware. And that doesnt happen anymore as Sony stopped newer PS3s from running it.

It's geohot's hack.


Now if sony were to release that mini's SDK for free, I'd find that a suitable compromise
But I just found out devs can get a free XNA license that lets them run their own code on 360, so I'm going to use that.

 

[Alucardx23]

George Hotz took it personal. XD

Don't Update

A note to people interested in the exploit and retaining OtherOS support, DO NOT UPDATE. When 3.21 comes out, I will look into a safe way of updating to retain OtherOS support, perhaps something like Hellcat's Recovery Flasher. I never intended to touch CFW, but if that's how you want to play...

http://geohotps3.blogspot.com/2010/03/dont-update.html

 

[corduroygt]

In this case, they haven't even copied the 360, since it already has an equivalent to the "appstore" (XNA Indie games)

Sony has the psp minis so they've copied that as well

 

[corduroygt]

It also needs Sony approval, which from what little I've read is hard to come by. They won't supply PS3 SDK to whoever is willing to pay.

See, none of the problems are really technical, but more of administrative/management/policy related in nature. Nothing is holding Sony up, they're their biggest enemy. A PS3 with an app store, and dedicated apps for web, e-mail, office, social networking would seriously threaten MS's dominance of the HTPC market. For example, how about a photoshop lite app that lets you edit your photos using the move controller with content aware fill? PS3 could really become the set-top equivalent of the ipad with blu-ray and game playback if Sony just had a little more vision.

If Sony existed in the movie "The invention of lying," their ad slogan would be:
PS3, it only does plays games and movies well, and does everything else half-assed.

 

[draconian]

Sony should release an sdk for an app store like the iphone

have a firmware update with a java run time engine. Put up an app store and let people develop for it and then sony could take a part of the profits.

 

[patsu]

Ha ha, hell yeah. That would be a simple and idealized way to look at it.

They have JVM on the Blu-ray stack, and it's small enough to run in parallel with the movie. I wanted it to run in Playstation Home as some sort of MUSH scripts too.

Unfortunately, Phil Harrison said they tried Java in PS Home and passed:
http://playstation.joystiq.com/2007/03/09/gdc-07-phil-harrison-talks-more-about-home/

Home's arcade games were originally going to be based in Java to make it as easy as possible for indie developers to get content ready. However, they moved away from the language for better performance.

Would be a pleasant surprise if they have someone optimize their JVM and compiler performance.

 

[oramay]

No one know what will happen to the 10GB allocated to Linux?

Yeah, I have actually installed Linux. However, I haven't used it again after I realized it's even slower than the old PC I'm using for the things I do and precious little free software out there is optimized for Cell. It probably only works well for people who write their own Cell programs.

Still, I have mixed feelings about them taking away my vanishingly small chance of learning Cell programming. :smile: Hope they at least give me back my 10GB without hassle.