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(I'm sure I'll lose karma for explaining Sonys side, since some people just want to be mad) Linux support was not removed due to Geohot. It was a driver and bu
by grogenaut 7y ago
(I'm sure I'll lose karma for explaining Sonys side, since some people just want to be mad)
Linux support was not removed due to Geohot. It was a driver and business priority issue. Geohot just sealed the deal.
Having worked there during the kerfuffle, I can confirm their reason was valid for not supporting Linux going forward. It was a non trivial effort and they wanted those engineers to make it support the new hardware turns. It was a company wide goal to hit break even at retail pricing at that time (Sony was amazing at running hardware coat forecasting internally and iirc hit their 7 year Target by a week). This required the new hardware. So they dropped Linux. That part is real.
Then they effed up by not messaging it well and by dropping promised back support.
And then a bunch of the community responded as petulant children and attacked sonys main business and released products that allowed others to infringe Sony and other game studios property with impunity. These actions killed any chance Sony would engage with this community for the next decade or so.
Sony was also backed into a corner technically as I recall as the thing hot hacked (by realizing it was a null crypto key on the one processor), and thus allowed Linux was also the thing that did the drm. Sony had to choose between another year or so of drm or Linux support.
As in many cases not parties are at fault. Contracts can and are broken. Sony paid multiple prices for it. So did the Linux/hacker community.
- Jasper_ 7y agoMy recollection is that the PS3/Linux thing was a failed tax dodge, because that meant you could classify the system as a general purpose computer instead of a game console. When the EU decided to categorize it as a game console anyway, they killed the Linux project.
- IronBacon 7y agoWasn't that the PS2? I recall they offered a "Linux" kit with mouse/keyboard, network/HDD adapter (so limited for fat models only) and a VGA cable to use with a computer monitor with sync-on-green support...
- vvanders 7y agoYeah, that sounds about right. As someone who was on the dev side of the fence at that time one of the areas where Sony was pretty poor was the devtools. Other than some hardware capabilities of the profiler Microsoft blew away everything else that Sony had. While running Linux on it was pretty neat, I wonder what the opportunity cost was to other parts of the development experience on the platform.
- stefan_ 7y agoNo, this reads like you working there has just made you immune to seeing all the missteps. No one made them do all the scuffed Sony custom logic they keep putting into their devices, causing all this overhead and compromise on engineering. No one pressured them into the ever more convoluted, bound-to-fail DRM schemes.
- hyperman1 7y agoI am taken aback a bit by this characterisation: And then a bunch of the community responded as petulant children and Sony supported linux in public, people bought their hardware for it, and then, without warning, sony janked the rug from under them. Of course people tried to take back their hardware, for which they paid. The blame here is 100% on Sony. Sony has a massive internal conflict of interest by being both a content creator and a hardware provider. They sabotage their own products to the detriment of their customers again and again. Sony worked with the community for a few years, and had the longest unhacked console to show for it. Then They slapped the community in the face and paid dearly for it, as the should. Sony should beg the community for another chance.
- wmf 7y agoI have a feeling that many people who complained were not affected because they either never used Linux or they only used Linux and could just not upgrade. I understand that in theory Sony should have fixed their hypervisor bugs and kept OtherOS working, but I also understand that the world isn't perfect.
- Gracana 7y agoWhy would many people complain if they were not affected? That seems like an odd conspiracy theory.
- thanatropism 7y agohttp://slashdot.org http://slashdot.org
- deogeo 7y agoIf you wait till you're affected, it's too late. Take secure boot for example - should we wait until there are no computers on the market where the user can unlock it, before we complain? Because that's what it would take for someone intent on buying an unlockable computer to be affected. You can apply this to any other infringement on freedom.
- 7y ago
- matheusmoreira 7y ago> This required the new hardware. So they dropped Linux. Lack of support for new hardware does not explain why they dropped support for early hardware.
- easytiger 7y agoIt's pretty simple. You pay for something with a headline capability. Capability is removed. You no longer have the thing you paid for. Honestly, your attitude is rather shocking.
- monksy 7y ago> And then a bunch of the community responded as petulant children and attacked sonys main business and released products that allowed others to infringe Sony and other game studios property with impunity. These actions killed any chance Sony would engage with this community for the next decade or so. Which sony regulary acts with impunity of being toxic towards it's users. (One thing to note: you can never get a refund on something you "bought" or something that was fraudulently bought on your PSN account. Do a charge back on a psn purchase, you loose all of your entitlements you purchased before)
- HeadsUpHigh 7y agoThe notion that it is more reasonable to remove a feature that you advertised for instead of losing drm just blows my mind.
- grogenaut 7y agoI think the thing that you are missing is that DRM is a key feature required by game publishers. Games is the main use of the platform and the reason it exists. Selling a Linux box isn't. One can argue that selling a Linux box at a loss is a dumb idea. One can argue doing so helped super computing to the masses and was a good gesture. However when the reason the box is subsidized is threatened then it's pretty rational to remove the thing threatening it. This was definitely a lesser of 2 evils for Sony business choice. They misjudged how much people cared about Linux. As others have misjudged other ads like no man's sky.
- HeadsUpHigh 7y agoThe game publishers are not your clients, the people buying the console are.