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> This isn’t the first time that Sony has had to deal with a security crisis with the popular PlayStation family. The PlayStation 3 was previously hit with a vu
by embedding-shape 10mo ago
> This isn’t the first time that Sony has had to deal with a security crisis with the popular PlayStation family. The PlayStation 3 was previously hit with a vulnerability when the company made a mistake with their cryptography on the console, allowing users to install homebrew software and allow piracy and cheating on popular titles.
Probably could have been avoided if Sony kept the Linux version of the Playstation still alive. Imagine what the (console) world would have looked like, if it was still alive. I never got the chance to even try it myself before it was gone, but I'm sure a lot of the homebrew community's energy could have been redirected towards it instead, hitting two flies with one swath.
- Sesse__ 10mo ago> Probably could have been avoided if Sony kept the Linux version of the Playstation still alive. The causality here is backwards; Sony removed Other OS support precisely because the first jailbreak (a glitching attack) relied on it.
- mschuster91 10mo agoIt only ever was present because Sony wanted to cheat EU import tariffs - by allowing other operating systems, it could be imported under the lower general-purpose computer rate. IMHO, removal of this feature should have triggered Sony having to pay back the amount of taxes cheated.
- lawlessone 10mo agoI recall they lost a bit on selling the consoles to the USAF that were used as computer cluster. (The consoles afaik sell/sold? at below cost and rely on games to make up the extra cash) So they lose money on consoles that aren't having games bought.
- dfxm12 10mo agoThe consoles were reportedly selling at a profit (at least in the US) by 2009. Reports about the USAF condor cluster surfaced in 2010.
- lawlessone 10mo agoi'm sure they profited overall, but this was costing them a little right?
- monocasa 10mo agoJust about anything it cost them was more than offset by the marketing win of 'a console so powerful, the military uses it as a supercomputer'.
- dontlaugh 10mo agoMore like it only happened because Sony restricted hardware access under Linux. If they had allowed GPU access, there would have been no motivation to attack the hypervisor.
- rockskon 10mo agoI thought they removed it because people were buying PS3's in bulk for datacenter use with OtherOS because the hardware was being sold for less than the cost of the parts with the expectation of getting their money back with game sales.
- dfxm12 10mo agoIs there any reason in particular you think this? Sony only removed the feature, citing "security concerns" mere months after George Hotz released the exploit. They would later go on to sue him. https://blog.playstation.com/archive/2010/03/29/ps3-firmware-3-21-coming-april-1st/ https://blog.playstation.com/archive/2010/03/29/ps3-firmware... On the other hand, the Ps3 clusters were around since basically the console's launch. Additionally, the console had been selling at a profit, at least in the US, by 2009, before they removed the other os feature. All this happened 16 years ago. If you're curious about stuff that has happened so recently, you can research it online.
- rockskon 10mo agoI think this because it was all over the tech news outlets at the time that the primary reason was due to Sony losing money because of console hardware being sold below the price of the components themselves. A company press release is not necessarily the be-all end-all full story when it comes to justifying something extremely unpopular with their customer base.
- coretx 10mo agoOtherOS existed for import tarifs reasons. Got removed when the need was gone. When the SCEA CISO warned Kaz Hirai removing it would lead to piracy, she got fired. Then it happened. Where do you have your bs from ?!
- throwawaymobule 10mo agoThey already removed it from slim models when they launched. Only the original ones ever supported the feature.
- xav_authentique 10mo agoIf anyone is interested in the cryptography mistake that Sony made I recommend watching the Console Hacking talk at 27c3 by the fail0verflow team: https://youtu.be/DUGGJpn2_zY?t=2096 https://youtu.be/DUGGJpn2_zY?t=2096
- Brian_K_White 10mo agoI had Yellowdog on mine from the day I bought it until the day Sony erased it. It was not useful. I don't regret doing it and I HATE that they took it away, and I'm a linux/bsd/various-unix daily driver home and work since forever, but this linux system on this hardware was just a curiosity to play with. Too slow and limited by the hardware to be useful. But it was fun.
- mrheosuper 10mo agoWhat could have been avoided ? I'm not sure how by letting user install linux, they prevent cheating and piracy ?
- intothemild 10mo agoIf I remember correctly. The system got broken into trivially. There was supposed to be some random value. But for some reason it was always the same value. 7 or something. Nobody tried to hack it, everyone assumed it was impossible. But when they removed Linux, then people tried, and it was broken very quickly.