Yesterday we reported that Sony was set to kill off the popular "OtherOS" support feature of older "fat" PlayStation 3s on April 1st with a firmware update.
Notable iPhone hacker "Geohot" has posted today on his blog that he is working on a CFW (custom firmware) that will work around the dropping of OtherOS support, also telling PS3 owners to avoid updating their consoles, for the time ... [ read the full article ]
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Oo, "OtherOS" support on Slims and later PS3s?! OK, damn, I may have to buy a PS3, if it works.
*Slobbers over Cell CPU running Linux*
I don't get the hate JaicraB and DemonHades have for Geohot, but I also haven't followed any of this much, until now, since I knew newer PS3s didn't support OtherOS. Whatever they say, if Geohot pulls it off, he deserves praise.
I've Yellow Dog Linux on my PS3 and I've also Linux on my two computers. Anyway, the PS3 can't do flash videos on firefox due to the lack of functionality between power pc and flash which is a pain because the PS3 browser is so crap. I'm interested in customised firmware and the ability play PS3 games from the hard disk. I know a huge hard disk would be needed because PS3 games are so big but it would be cool. So does anyone think that Geohot or someone else could release cfw that would make this possible?
Originally posted by htorihpeS: ... Anyway, the PS3 can't do flash videos on firefox due to the lack of functionality between power pc and flash which is a pain because the PS3 browser is so crap...
There are some free Linux applications that support the PPC: Fedora, Debian, &c). (Used by Sony for writing malware.) Also, my MacOS 10.4 ran Flash videos just fine (on Safari & Firefox), using Adobe's application. The PPC or OpenGL language shouldn't be a problem. The newer kernel of Linux runs .swf & other flashy files nicely (on Firefox) using FlashPlayer clones, though 'Fluffy' is too small to try videos.
However, I'm here just to note two other possible reasons for downgrading the PS3 from a computer to a game player. It's true Sony is somewhat paranoid about security, but also true is appears to have a contractual marriage with Microsoft (open source is unethical).
Here's a third opinion on penguinppc.org:
'Sony claims this move is a reaction to the recent PlayStation exploit, but given that the exploit requires hardware expertise and doesn't enable piracy, it seems more likely that the company is using security as a convenient excuse to reduce expenses.'
Here is a very interesting statement from the PS3 article on the Wikipedia:
'Furthermore, it raises questions about the millions of Euros Sony saved over the years on import tax in Europe, thanks to being able to declare the PS3 a computer rather than a game console -- game consoles carry an import tax, while computers do not.'
