PS3 slim removes ability to install Linux

[stmiller]

Eek no more Linux on the PS3 with the new model:

http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/18/sony-debuts-slimmer-ps3/

:(

[zmjjmz]

I guess these won't be used in clusters then (unless they're easy to hack).

[tom66]

Given enough determination people will hack it and probably sell modified consoles.

[Xbehave]

Shutting out the community that want to run linux on their consoles, may well lead to security on the ps3slim being completly compromised! The xbox360 did almost everything right (after the xbox which had 3 holes in 512b), however somebody went and broke the security on it for homebrew (so they could run linux) and as a result you can chip your dvd drive to accept any disk! I wonder if the same will happen when ps3slim is the only way to buy a new ps3.

[solitaire]

Would be interesting to find out if they have just removed the Automatic setup for another OS.

Or

Have totally blocked the install of another OS.

Might it be possible to use a drive from an old PS3 in the "Slimline PS3" that has another OS installed?

Can't wait to find out....

[Cam42]

Or, y'know, just another hard drive?

[northwestuntu]

i wouldnt see why you would want to? doesnt run that well from what i hear.

[geekygirl]

Hmm must mean they are going to change this for all PS3's as I was under the belief that this was part of the update.

Could just mean you have to get it from the website and download it yourself like you used to have to do prior to it being rolled into the OS....

[KiwiNZ]

I put Ubuntu on my PS3 once , then thought why???

I took it back off

[MikeTheC]

I offer these comments not as a console owner or an avid gamer -- neither of which I am -- but rather as the nearest thing to a "Sony expert" that this thread probably has.

I was a Sony employee for five years, so I am well aware of the internal politics and circumstances of that corporation. While it's true that a Welshman now captains the ship and that he's been slowly sacking people who don't agree with his vision -- which seems to fluctuate and has done since he was installed as CEO -- the fact of the matter is Sony is a sinking ship which is desperately trying to bail water and plug the holes.

Try and understand that, before the PS3, Sony Computer Entertainment (a.k.a. "SCE") was one of the few profitable divisions of Sony. Most of the rest were either breaking even or really starting to get run into the ground due to agendas and looking backward Sony's own brand of "good 'ole boy" which consists of keeping retired executives around as advisors and giving them titles and positions wherein they can effectively keep their own dreams and ambitions alive, regardless of how it may affect the company's bottom line.

Also try and understand that since Sony has their fingers into everything -- music, television, movies, recording media, optical media, broadcast technology, etc. -- and this means there can be *massive* conflicts of interest between different groups. I don't mean to bring religion into this discussion, but strictly as an analogy, there's a passage in the Bible that a house built on sinking sand cannot stand. Sony is very much a "divided house". And whatever (some) of you folks may think of Apple, please try and understand whatever evils you want to accuse Apple of, Sony is actually guilty of them 100 times over.

Anyhow, as I was saying above, SCE was Sony's rising star and division which helped prop up their financials for years and years. Then, this man...

http://www.stuffwelike.com/stuffwelike/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/kutaragi.jpg

Ken Kutaragi, wanted to iterate the platform (that is to say, PlayStation) to the PS3. All was well and fine except for the in-fighting over what would be included, what would not, what partnerships would be done, and anyhow in short the PS3 became a money pit, thus basically sinking that division's profitability. Ken -- despite the "devil in the details" what you read on the 'net -- was sacked because he wouldn't play ball and do what the corporate office wanted. Remember, this is the guy who thought up the original PS and PS2. He understood then -- and arguably still does -- what it means to have a thriving game platform, and corporate's "decisions made in committee" were largely the antithesis of this.

BTW, did you know that for the longest time, when you bought a PS3, they were so far in the hole (even at the high initial sales prices) it would take you buying 30-odd games for the PS3 just for your unit to have been "dug out of the hole" profitability-wise? Read that again: not made profitable, but just for Sony to break even. Now, Sony is also about control. They are *massively* about control, even worse than Steve and his crew at Apple (who, whatever else you may say, top-down know how to profitably run a company). And frankly, I bet Sony's higher-ups see no benefit to them in "letting" their customers run Linux on a PlayStation. Ergo, they're perfectly content -- and easily able to self-justify -- stripping that ability off, regardless of how much a detriment it might theoretically be for the product's future viability. Mind you, I don't think it really makes all that much difference since it's not like your typical PS3 user puts Linux on their unit.

So, in not-quite-so-short, NO, it doesn't surprise me at all that Sony would do this.

[perbiu]

When the Ps2 slim came out, you can't install linux on it either because they removed the extension bay. Only the first big ones. I think that's for cost reduction purposes, now that sales is not doing good with the recession.

The good part about playstation is that old ones becomes of value instead of obsolete like the first generation has full backward compatibility.

[doorknob60]

Doesn't bother me. It's not that great anyways. It's more of a hassle than it is useful IMO. I had it for a while, but never used it at all. Now I just use PS3mediaserver to watch videos and use my Wii for Emulators and Homebrew (that's what Wii's do best :P)

[madjr]

sony forcing us to jail break it..

maybe they are making it more interesting for us linux users who like to hack into things ^^

anyway i would like the first generation ps3 with ps2 compatibility

[pwnst*r]

Shutting out the community that want to run linux on their consoles, may well lead to security on the ps3slim being completly compromised! The xbox360 did almost everything right (after the xbox which had 3 holes in 512b), however somebody went and broke the security on it for homebrew (so they could run linux) and as a result you can chip your dvd drive to accept any disk! I wonder if the same will happen when ps3slim is the only way to buy a new ps3.

almost everything right? hardware failures were/are historic.

[ELD]

It wasn't great on PS3 anyway, no big loss.

[MikeTheC]

Well, considering the fact that the PS3 uses a Cell processor, I'm not at all surprised a general-purpose OS like Linux doesn't perform particularly well on it. Now, allegedly Cell is supposed to be a very interesting architecture. However, it is specialized, so don't expect the world from it.

[MaxIBoy]

That's a laugh. You can't stop the Linux hackers. True fact: even the GameCube has a Linux distro.

[CJ Master]

That's a laugh. You can't stop the Linux hackers. True fact: even the GameCube has a Linux distro.

It's been three years and nobody has hacked it yet. Not enough interest, who wants to break a $300 toy?

[aviedw]

I dont think it will make a difference truthfully. Like many here have said, very few ps3 users actually install linux on their gaming system.

The Ps3 is in a slump because they focus was in the wrong place. They were focused on the system itself, with the blue ray drive and the cell processor when they should have been more worried about their game library. When that system hit the stores it had like 10 games. If they knew that system was going to cost that much, they should have had at least 25 games for that system.

There marketing stratgey just wasn't diverse. They were depending on their legacy too much.

In all i think it would have been interesting for a company that size to embrace the open source world. But OpenSource will always find a way through. If its anything like a computer people will find a way to install linux on it and we will be some of the first people to find out about it.

[gn2]

Would be interesting to find out if they have just removed the Automatic setup for another OS.

Or

Have totally blocked the install of another OS.

Might it be possible to use a drive from an old PS3 in the "Slimline PS3" that has another OS installed?

Can't wait to find out....

Explained here
(http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/08/28/sony_ps3_slim_linux_install_loss/).

[Tristam Green]

Or, y'know, just another hard drive?

yep, you can still remove the hard drive in the slim.

[itsjareds]

I'm still debating on whether or not to buy the Slim or get the old 80gb Fat version. My PS3's in my room, so I'd be able to surf the Internet with Ubuntu (netbook remix?) and stream music instead of playing CDs. Also would be able to watch Youtube and use Pidgin.

Is the old 80gb version THAT much worse (hardware-wise) than the Slim, and is the Slim so much better that I should get the slim even without the Other OS?

Slim looks cool, it's a shame that they removed Other OS. If the old PS3 runs fine then I don't care much about fan noise or whatever improvements they made on the Slim.

[drawkcab]

I wish the ps3 had 1g of ram, that would make it a fun linux platform.

[doorknob60]

I'm still debating on whether or not to buy the Slim or get the old 80gb Fat version. My PS3's in my room, so I'd be able to surf the Internet with Ubuntu (netbook remix?) and stream music instead of playing CDs. Also would be able to watch Youtube and use Pidgin.

Is the old 80gb version THAT much worse (hardware-wise) than the Slim, and is the Slim so much better that I should get the slim even without the Other OS?

Slim looks cool, it's a shame that they removed Other OS. If the old PS3 runs fine then I don't care much about fan noise or whatever improvements they made on the Slim.

You think you'll use it (I thought I would), but honestly, you probably won't (I didn't). Youtube and browsing work fine in the built in browsers, and I wouldn't be surprised if a web IM client like Meebo would work. Also, for streaming, try this, works well for me: http://code.google.com/p/ps3mediaserver/

[orlox]

I wish the ps3 had 1g of ram, that would make it a fun linux platform.

If it had 1gb ram, It could use emulators to emulate wii, gamecube and ps2 games...Though the wii emulators are not very mature yet (actually, I only know one...)

[perbiu]

The only improvements slim has from the fat is its smaller and less watt consumption.

[itsjareds]

You think you'll use it (I thought I would), but honestly, you probably won't (I didn't). Youtube and browsing work fine in the built in browsers, and I wouldn't be surprised if a web IM client like Meebo would work. Also, for streaming, try this, works well for me: http://code.google.com/p/ps3mediaserver/

I heard that the PS3 browser doesn't support AJAX. Isn't this a fairly major disability, considering Web 2.0? Web IM clients generally use AJAX unless they're connected through flash/java.

As far as streaming, I meant through an online service like Grooveshark. On second thought, Grooveshark is a Flash application, so it should run fine, like Youtube. Maybe I should just get the Slim. I wouldn't even have to bother with streaming from my computer when I can use the Internet :P


The only improvements slim has from the fat is its smaller and less watt consumption.

And 40gb more HDD space for the same price.

[amitabhishek]

IMO the single biggest reason why you would like to install Linux on PS3 is because the bundled Mozilla browser is so damn slow!!! Even at 256MB browsing through FF or Epiphany should be a charm.

[gtr32]

The only improvements slim has from the fat is its smaller and less watt consumption.

It can also bitstream HD audio unlike the older versions which could only do LPCM.

[itsjareds]

I heard from a friend that the PS3 Slim overheats.. is this true?

[ninjashoes]

I heard from a friend that the PS3 Slim overheats.. is this true?

No, its not true.

It does seem to have less vents though and of course it probably gets a little hotter. Make sure you don't have anything blocking the vents in the back and you will be fine.

I have the 80 gig version. I was thinking about putting linux on it but I don't really think there would be a point besides the coolness factor.

[rasmus91]

I was thinking about putting linux on it but I don't really think there would be a point besides the coolness factor.

yeah? It's like being offered an old pirate ship, like one from a movie and then saying no.

Never turn down coolness factor! :P

[gtr32]

yeah? It's like being offered an old pirate ship, like one from a movie and then saying no.

Never turn down coolness factor! :P

Somehow 'pirate' reminds me of what you can use the PS3 with Linux...make backups of your BD movies. Then you can of course stream them from your media server to PS3. :)