Sony's main motivation in providing OtherOS functionality was, as always, money. By being able to run alternative OSes PS3 was classified as a computer and not

Sony's main motivation in providing OtherOS functionality was, as always, money. By being able to run alternative OSes PS3 was classified as a computer and not a console for tax purposes, and Sony had to pay less tax because of that. I'm not sure what the actual numbers are tho, so someone else feel free to chime in.