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US Air Force To Suffer From PS3 Update
tlhIngan writes "The US Air Force, having purchased PS3s for supercomputing research, is now the latest victim of Sony's removal of the Install Other OS feature. It turns out that while their PS3s don't need the firmware update, it will be impossible to replace PS3s that fail. PS3s with the Other OS feature are no longer produced since the Slim was introduced, so replacements will have to come from the existing stock of used PS3s. However, as most gamers have probably updated their PS3s, that used stock is no longer suitable for the USAF's research. In addition, smaller educational clusters using PS3s will share the same fate — unable to replace machines that die in their clusters."
In related news, Sony has been hit with two more lawsuits over this issue.
Bomb them to hell if they don't bring back this feature, vital for national security.
There's been a big push in recent years to move to "COTS" (Commercial Off The Shelf) solutions in the government - the military in particular. And while this may be find for things like holsters, backpacks, and office chairs, I think this highlights for EVERYONE, not just bright young aquisitions officers, that sometimes taking COTS technology and using it for your highly specific and critical application is not the best choice. Unfortunately, sometimes (sometimes!) big, expensive, and proprietary in-house solutions really are the best.
(heh. captcha is 'acquire')
This is a good data point for the research, assuming they are interested in results other than performance, as it will show that a dependency on non replaceable hardware or hardware beyond their control isn't that great in the long run.
Carbon based humanoid in training.
What, the USAF was the only buyer of PS3s, and now suddenly that they can't use them, nobody wants them... the market will be flooded with $0.10 used PS3s nobody can actually use for anything useful.
It turns out that while their PS3s don't need the firmware update, it will be impossible to replace PS3s that fail.
Unless they, y'know, get directly in touch with Sony and tell them what they're trying to do. I'm sure in a case like this that something can be worked out. Instead of actual reporting and checking up on the situation, we instead get people using words like "impossible". There are many things that happen every single day that fall into this same category of "impossible", and yet they happen...
Well they have the bargaining power. Like, if you don't supply us with an OS install feature you better get nervous when you see an aircraft flying towards your headquarters. Or maybe you won't see a thing. Accidents happen you know
The Sony PS4 will not come with a Linux option *at all*
The meme is dead, long live the meme!
This will be a good opportunity for the government to see how good hacking/jailbreaking/etc. is, and they can install geohot's fix so they don't lose linux support.
According to those news article dates, they aren't even half way thought the hardware refresh schedule. Looks like this little oversight by project planners is going to cost them. If they don't get sued, the cheapest way coulde be the manpower to break the DMCA and hack the things. Not sure if Sony's license allows you to flash the firmware with an older version. Otherwise, ebay for old models or start looking for replacement hardware. Although, perhaps doing nothing and letting them die out, its a cluster remember, won't have much of an impact beyond RAM and HD problems.
The XBox 360 has already been successfully used for scientific computing. Microsoft should move in for the kill with a modified 360 that includes a complete tool chain and a new clustering API.
Apparently, for the particular bit of number-crunching that they were doing, Cell curb-stomped x86. They then concluded that, if you want Cell, your only options are a few absurdly expensive specialist compute servers(IBM makes one, Sony at least has a model number, I think that there are one or two others) or cheap PS3s. Since, when the started, OtherOS was a standard, supported, option, the only "hacking" involved was the inconvenience of having to touch each machine to kick off the install.
Had their algorithm not suited Cell, the PS3 would have been an absurd choice. Since it did, though, it was actually pretty sensible(barring Sony's hard-to-predict action).
The slim PS3s didn't support the Other OS feature from launch, and when they started making the slim models they stopped producing the older ones that did support it. This has been an issue since Sept 2009.
Why no spaces?
In the 90's, when I needed any electronic stuff, I used to look at Sony first. I bought most of my stuff from them, never had any problems, and was always satisfied with the product. Call it the highest level of brand loyalty and customer satisfaction.
Then I fell asleep. I woke up about ten years later.
The Sony I knew then, was suddenly very, very different. Now, Sony will be the last on my list, when I need to make another electronic purchase. I really feel that Sony doesn't give a damn anymore about product quality and customer satisfaction.
Sony rootkiting your PC? Maybe I am still asleep, and having a nightmare . . .
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
"Sony's decision had no immediate impact on the cluster; for obvious reasons, the PS3s are not hooked into the PlayStation Network and don't need Sony's firmware updates. But what happens when a PS3 dies or needs repair? Tough luck."
The PS3 stopped supporting linux installations when they introduced the PS3 slim and stopped making the original one. Why is this even news?
Well, PS3s were marketed with Other Os feature. And they offered the same computing power cheaper than PCs. When PS3 came out you could barely buy dual-core processors PCs for the same price. (The PS3 has 7 cores running on 3.2 GHz.)
You are a 360 fanboiy and don't even know it sir.
Here are this weeks game sales numbers on a newer games just out on both platforms.
Super Street Fighter IV
PS3 sales: 280,049
X360 sales: 189,897
2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa
PS3 sales:157,589
x360 sales: 112,275
It looks to me like the PS3 is now .destroying. the xbox 360 in terms of game sales. The WII is really a different market and I don't think the xbox or ps3 'lost' to them, the WII just opened up a new untouched market that everyone else wish they had a part of :}
Source http://www.vgchartz.com/weekly.php?date=40307&boxartz=1#
(The first hit on a google search for game sales)
it's not cheap, nor is it THAT expensive, but they can just send it in to Sony for repair. Sony didn't flash my 60gb when i had repair work done on it...
Interesting....I hadn't seen this.
I'll make sure to do more research in future before opening my mouth ;-)
Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines
anyone who trusts microsoft, sony, apple dig their own grave.
Read radical news here
I think they are the only Sony's clients with tactical nuclear weapons.
makes ya wonder what will happen to the Folding@Home client stats as PS3s die off and aren't replaced.
And who suffers in the end? Sick kids.
Oh, will someone think of the children!
If a branch of the US military wanted updatable PS3's they will be able to get them by paying extra for a large lot. All corporate salesman negotiate. To think otherwise is naive.
Camping on quad since 1996.
Heck, I can't even get parts for my 1&1/2 year old mountain bike. Fortunately I bought it at REI and they'll let me return it for a full refund and then I can buy a new bike. REI FTW.
Just curious. I have had problems sourcing pads for Hayes Sole brakes. Apart from that I am okay so far.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
There's been a big push in recent years to move to "COTS" (Commercial Off The Shelf) solutions in the government - the military in particular. And while this may be find for things like holsters, backpacks, and office chairs, I think this highlights for EVERYONE, not just bright young aquisitions officers, that sometimes taking COTS technology and using it for your highly specific and critical application is not the best choice. Unfortunately, sometimes (sometimes!) big, expensive, and proprietary in-house solutions really are the best.
No, what it drives home is that, when you purchase a piece of hardware, it belongs to you, and no vendor should have the legal right to modify what you have purchased without your consent, nor to coerce consent for modifications that reduce or cripple the capabilities of something you have purchased.
Maybe now that military and commercial interests are being impacted, we can get the barest modicum of consumer protection to outlaw this shit (and similar, retroactive software modifications as well, such as Steve Jobs foists upon his hapless iPhone slaves ... it all eventually amounts to the same thing, and puts a lot more than the military at risk).
I know for our trading platforms we would never tolerate this kind of thing from a vendor (and Apple has lost out on this on more than one occasion for exactly this reason). I'm amazed the military hasn't come down on Sony like a ton of bricks -- a large investment bank certainly would have.
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
I have an idea... Let's make the PS3 useless, then sell a PS4 with the other OS option, when it's time to sell PS5 (to be nicknamed the piss) we will turn off the other OS option in the PS4. We can do this for 50 years before anyone catches on.
The original post had spaces, but they were removed by Sony in a firmware update.
You'd have to do this at the hardware level. Are there any JTAG pads on the board? If not, clipping onto the firmware flash chip with the appropriate tool may be necessary. That, or some means to prevent the existing firmware from loading while loading a substitute into RAM, which will then reload the firmware flash.
First to figure this out might get a little military contract :-)
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
In the grand scheme of things, I have to wonder if the US government and EU are pretty happy with Sony's decision here. While, yes, they'll be force to spend more money on systems to replicate what they were doing with their PS3 clusters, the PS3 clusters in Iran and North Korea will degrade, too.
"Purchased PS3s for supercomputing research". I definitely have to remember this one.
Mostly harmless.
First, your argument is crap. Case in point: I've been using Windows desktop since Windows 3.1 and I've never had a virus on my personal Windows machines. That means *nothing*. It's like saying "I haven't died yet, so I must be immortal". Please don't spread bollocks about viruses and operating systems - I'm a Linux nut but that's just a way to lie to people about Linux's real security - the design. You can still get Linux or MacOS viruses the same as anyone else if you do the same stupid things on any OS (execute unknown programs, use programs with known security flaws, etc.).
Next - security does *not* imply anti-virus... by definition an anti-virus program can only do its job *after* security has already been breached and requires full administrator-level access to the machine in order to do so (and so becomes its own security problem).
Sony aren't concerned about "security"... it's a dumb line to use. They are concerned about piracy and people hacking their systems to run games that they have or have not paid for. Although that's "security" in one sense, it's not the type of computer security that you're discussing. Sony think they are combating game piracy, theoretical or actual, and thus there's no reason why their corporate/government/education customers should suffer. But they didn't bother to think about that and just "switched it off" without any real choice (not updating to the latest firmware isn't a "choice" - it's enforced obsolescence).
I don't really care whether the US military can do things using PS3 or not - it's a niche use, outside the scope of the product, unwarrantied and unsupported, by an organisation more than capable of working around such problems. And they *wouldn't* (or at least *shouldn't*) be shouting in the press if this was actually a real issue... US military supercomputing efforts hampered / hacked / controlled / dictated to by a Japanese company? Then you really deserve everything that you get. However, I do care (despite never owning one and never intending to own one) about the PS3's that were already sold not being "broken" or having functionality removed outside of the scope of various trade acts. That's just stupid, illegal and harming to the company. But then, I don't think I've ever bought anything from Sony in my life, and I've never even played on a PS3. If you were reliant on Sony to continue to "co-operate" in terms of support, then you should have had a contract with them. If they failed to abide by any contract you have with them (including implied contracts under trade laws), and they continue to fail to abide by them, then you sue them.
And next time you buy *anything*, briefly research the historical behaviour of the companies involved. If they act like a company you don't want to support, don't buy their products.
http://www.theonion.com/video/sony-releases-new-stupid-piece-of-shit-that-doesnt,14309/
"Really? You want to play this game? We've already nuked Japan once, did you like it that much?"
Out of curiosity, which brand of bike was this? Was it from their in-house Novara line, or one of their other brands they carry? (I know they carry Scott and Raleigh as well...). And yeah, REI's got some of the best customer service I've ever seen. I buy most of my outdoor gear from them even when they don't have the absolute best price just for the service.
Not exactly. The Cell has one PPE core, that's hyperthreaded with Altivec, and 7 SPE's, one of which is reserved, so you get access to 6 under Linux. Still, it's a number crunching beastie. Untill quite recently most of the processing power of Folding@home was in all those PS3's running it, and they're still about one third of it.
that Sony doesn't like profit. Why else would they remove th second OS. They obviously don't want people using PS3 for non-game use. Therefore they'll stop people from buying them, thereby reducing their profit. Apple of course does the same thing, but ra ra ra Apple.
The air force can MacGyver around this so it's not that bad and what can Sony do I don't trying court / the DMCA will work when it's the air force.
Serves Sony completely right to get sued over and over again, and angry military forces is going to be nice!
Companies doing the shit like Sony just did deserves this happening, all too rarely anyone does anything about it, as a single unit is so worthless but it's about damn time at least one company is ending up paying for this kind of bullshit.
Pulsed Media Seedboxes
Yes, it's a Novara.
So if the old adage that it takes forever to sue the government holds true, would the government threatening to sue Sony work? Or worse, some kind of import ban, regulation banning the purchase of Sony products for government use, or tariffs on electronics made outside of the US may do something to wake them up.
However it plays out, in something like "The United States Government vs. Sony" could wind up to be bad news for Sony. They don't have B-2 bombers or the kind of people (politicians and celebrities) that can come out and say stuff like "Buying Sony products cripples America's Defense. Do you support companies that cripple the U.S. Military? Here is a list of companies who have attempted to cripple our national defense with their products..." show that with images of US soldiers around the world...
Yeah, Sony would bleed money.
"Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet." General James Mattis
If the USAF couldn't have predicted Sony deciding to fuck its customers, I'm a bit concerned about its ability to predict much of anything.
My opinions are my own, and do not necessarily represent those of my employer.
and there is money to be made in repair of these systems..
... I'll have a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster with a side of Plutonium Nyborg
Using PS3s for anything, especially non-gaming research applications seemed like a really bad idea in the first place. A game console is nothing but an overpriced, crippled computer. Sure, the multi-core cell processor might be great for some things, but I doubt that they couldn't have found something better for the same price.
You need to follow Mr. Peabody into the way-back machine to understand why they used PS3s. At the time it offered dramatically more flops per dollar than anything else. Flops are what you really need for all serious simulation, and the more precision, the better. It's only recently that you could get halfway decent double-precision flop rates with GPGPU computing. And even today, you'll need at least a $100 video card to push any significant number of them, plus a PC with a PCIEx16 slot. There has probably never been a cheaper source of flops than a used PS3 until recently, where used PCs with high-end video cards capable of delivering them began to become available. And I suspect that if you run the numbers, a typically-priced (say, gamestop price?) used PS3 will provide more DP FLOPS than a typically-priced used PC. Again, this is in the process of changing; it might be here already. And in any case, Sony has just eliminated the value of the used PS3 for scientific computing. (Those who say it had none previously are ignoring the many benefits of clustering; if a node dies, who cares, aside from the financial impact of its replacement? You can buy used consoles in bulk.)
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
OMG........Please mod parent up!
Thanks - makes me feel a little better, I have a Scott Genius dual suspension from around the same era. Its kind of odd though - Novara bikes generally have a good reputation.
Had their algorithm not suited Cell, the PS3 would have been an absurd choice.
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't most of the features of the Cell disabled under the OtherOS option?
One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
Please don't spread bollocks about viruses and operating systems - I'm a Linux nut but that's just a way to lie to people about Linux's real security - the design. You can still get Linux or MacOS viruses the same as anyone else if you do the same stupid things on any OS (execute unknown programs, use programs with known security flaws, etc.).
You are being [deliberately?] obtuse. The very nature of the Linux software ecosystem makes such malware more difficult to distribute, because most Linux users expect to get all software directly from their provider's repository.
Sony aren't concerned about "security"... it's a dumb line to use. They are concerned about piracy and people hacking their systems to run games that they have or have not paid for.
False. This is not about game piracy. This is about Blu-Ray piracy. The PS3 running Linux is by far the most convenient Blu-Ray copying platform. This is why people who say that you shouldn't treat Sony as a single entity are complete (or for Sony's purposes, compleat) idiots. One division will take actions to protect another division, and that is exactly what is happening here. It doesn't happen automatically; the higher-ups running the whole show are the ones who make decisions like this, because one division doesn't control another division.
And next time you buy *anything*, briefly research the historical behaviour of the companies involved. If they act like a company you don't want to support, don't buy their products.
Amen to that. Unfortunately fanboyism is real. I have a friend whose brother-in-law works for Sony. IIRC he's involved with scores or something. This friend is impaled so far onto Sony's cock that he'll never breathe through his mouth again. Every time Sony does something evil, he has just enough grace to look embarrassed, and then he goes on trying to tell me about how great some game he's been playing is. He was considering using his PS3 as a computer, possibly preventing him from needing to buy one; he's got fast internet, so using his machine as a web browser was a reasonable strategy. Sony just took that right away from him, preventing him from getting value for which he's paid. He even noticed the option missing from the menu! His response was classic sour grapes. "Well, it probably wouldn't have worked that well anyway." Meanwhile he currently has a borrowed PC hooked up to the same TV he uses for his PS3, and all he does with it? Netflix and web browsing, two things you can do with the PC. I'm about to sell him a Dual Athlon 64 box for the same purpose, I have it lying around (right now I'm using it to play Mechwarrior IV.)
Sony would be entirely gone long before now, but advertising works. They've built immense brand loyalty, mostly among the young, who haven't had the life experience to teach them that being loyal to a public corporation is stupid. I've owned a lot of brands of car, a lot of brands of computer, a lot of brands of car stereo, and numerous examples of each, and what I've learned is that everybody makes mistakes, and most everybody also makes shit, just about everybody rebrands other makers' kit, and what all this means is that you must approach every purchase critically. Further, you can't even purchase what you think is the same product without doing research; Taco Works used to be my favorite tortilla chip, for some reason they added MSG to it, now I can't eat it. It appeared in a local store (probably due to post-buyout changes in distribution, I haven't checked) and I bought 'em home, then got that sick feeling in my mouth and finally looked at the ingredients. Fuckers stole my childhood, I will forever think of the taste of MSG when I think about eating those chips now, they've inserted MSG into my fucking memories. But it's my fault; I should have read the label. I should have known better than to trust a brand. And so should everyone else.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
My understanding is that the GPU is neutered to hell and back, you basically just get a dumb framebuffer; but that the GPU is completely separate from the Cell, its basically just near-stock Nvidia silicon from a few generations back. The Cell, though, is more or less as functional as it ever is(which is to say that you only get 7 SPEs rather than the full 8 in the expensive compute gear).
Unless you program your application specifically to use the SPEs, PS3 Linux is basically just not-especially-fast PPC Linux with not much RAM; but the SPEs are available.
You'd think the geniuses at Sony would offer an alternative version of the PS3 specifically for research applications. They're delivered as a blank slate for whatever OS the user wants to install. It seems to me like Sony is just throwing money away here.
You know they do sell replacement keyboards. Some of them even come with a space key.
I don't believe in karma, I just call it like I see it.
Is a IBM BladeCenter that expensive for an enterprise (well, Air Force) grade cluster? A QS21 is about 7k (2 CPUs/2GB RAM). How it specs compare to a PS3? How much does a PS3 cost?
English is not my first language. Corrections and suggestions are welcome.
Ship the thing so it can't play games, but has a decent amount of memory. Sell it at full retail, with a nice margin built in. You should be able to sell them for $500 a pop and make money. Don't be stupid (yeah, I know, it's Sony), take advantage of the market you helped to create.
Who am I kidding? You'll go back to breaking shit people bought in good faith. What a bunch of morons.
We can bet that the air force will rely on circumventing this forced upgrade and will hack their consoles into processing machines once again. The only downside to this approach is that they will become suable by Sony once the ACTA is pushed through. Maybe we can look forward to the Air Force fighting against the ACTA?
Seriously after the latest final fantasy I gave up on the PS3.
Let me state that again. It's a game machine. It's not a mature server platform. When you buy game machines you cannot expect server level support. I really don't see what the issue is. If people really thought that a secondary feature of a game machine, that is, the ability to install and run your own OS, makes the PS3 a server platform, then they are delusional.
The only thing worse than a Democrat is a Republican.
This. There are also two things to keep in mind:
1) There is a Cell Gallium driver which operates on the CPU, which can provide decently fast 3D if you need it.
2) The GPU's beefier functions are only disabled because when it's fully init'd it can DMA to anywhere in main memory, ignoring memory protection and ownership. It could completely bypass the hypervisor if unlocked.
~ C.
that is, I fail to comprehend. Sony could turn around and sell unlocked machines as "specialized platforms" for many times the price, while imposing restrictive usage conditions, and *still* have it be a bargain. Considering how much the PS3 sales cost them, you'd think they would jump on the opportunity.
The PS3 launched at $500, if I recall accurately, and may have drifted down a little after that, so the price depends on exactly when they were buying; but that is a decent ballpark figure.
Specs are 1 CPU, 256MB of XDR RAM(another 256 of video RAM; but I believe that that is largely useless for the OtherOS). 1 GigE port.
The QS21 is 7k for 2CPUs and 2 GB of DDR, along with 2 GigE and optional infiniband. For every 14 of those, you'll need a Bladecenter H(6K, plus options) or put 12 in a Bladecenter HT(14K plus options).
If your application requires more RAM, or tighter coupling than 1xGigE, you don't really have much of a choice. If you can get away with it, though, the price difference is nontrivial.
Buy a kindle? Have YOUR PAID FOR books removed at amazons will.
Not Amazon's will, the publisher's will. And they at least refunded your money.
Sony hasn't returned a dime.
Buy an apple product?
Again, to be fair, Apple never promised more than people are getting. Also, as far as I know, they haven't actually killed any purchased applications -- they'll remove it from the store, but not from your device. (Though, point against Apple: If I recall, the "I Am Rich" guy was never paid.)
Sony not only sold the PS3 with this feature enabled, they advertised it. "You're not just buying a game console, you're buying a powerful computer system!"
If sony's terms of service said something about taking away features at their own will, it is not a valid part of the contract. Here in america, we have laws that prevent mega-corporations from making insanely complicated contracts and inserting clauses about how they own your soul and can harvest your body parts whenever they please.
Do we really? Because it seems more like we have the opposite. Just look at the tax code -- seems almost deliberately designed to force the average person to have to hire someone to understand it. If it wasn't insanely complicated, H&R block wouldn't have to exist.
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
I think this might be overly hyped, at least in the USAF's case, too much. I seriously have my doubts that Sony PHYSICALLY could not supply them with units to replace their broken machines (meaning fat PS3s). It would be amazing to me that Sony does not have the equipment to, and would not agree to, simply "revert" the OS for replacing and units that are to be supplied as replacements for the military cluster. This isn't Joe Smith from Anytown, USA, that we are talking about here. A major buyer, such as the US government, would surely get special treatment. Granted, I have no proof to back this up, but it seems highly logical.
$500 for the 20GB model, $600 for the 60GB model.
As I recall, the 20GB model also was missing card readers and 802.11b/g networking.
GLaDOS for President 2016! "Well here we are again. It's always such a pleasure." -- GLaDOS, 2011
If Sony is impaled that far up his ass, why doesn't he have a Sony Vaoi laptop?
Or is this just Story Time?
GLaDOS for President 2016! "Well here we are again. It's always such a pleasure." -- GLaDOS, 2011
Are you defending capitalism, or corporatism? In the U.S., consumers are 70% of the economy. Yet the politicians are accommodating the 30% who have the money to buy elections. Short answer to your question - yes, more and more people are hating the excessive intrusion that capitalists are imposing on their lives.
When that 30% is restored to its proper role, the complaining will surely die down. Capitalism will replace corporatism and everybody will prosper.
Best regards.
According to Engadget,
Geohot promised a workaround for Sony's removal of the "install other OS" feature in PS3 firmware 3.21 and now Geohot has delivered...Geohot even says that the custom firmware might actually enable the other OS feature on the PS3 Slim, but he hasn't yet had a chance to try it out.
Okay, Airforce, here's your strategy:
1) Hire Hotz (Geohot), have him make the OtherOS feature work on PS3 slim hardware, and then
2) buy a few extra units to safeguard against Sony throwing another firmware/hardware update into the mix.
As a bonus prize you make a bunch of geeky hardware/software -hacker-types pleased with what you're funding, and goodness knows that you're always looking to recruit geeks for your cyber warfare divisions.
coding is life
You're misrepresenting the trend, while PS3 has caught up with the 360 in the sale of some games, it has in no was surpassed the xbox 360 in all areas.
Examples Include (using the same site as you, vgcharts.com):
CoD:MW2
PS3 sales:7.82m
x360 sales: 10.69m
BF:BC2
PS3 sales:1.40m
x360 sales: 2.05m
NBA 2K10
PS3 sales:0.64m
x360 sales: 0.75m
Major League Baseball 2K10
PS3 sales:0.64m
x360 sales:0.06m
Just Cause 2
PS3 sales:0.40m
x360 sales:0.42m
As you can see, PS3 is in no way "destroying" the xbox 360 in terms of game sales.
I'm sorry, but I cannot blame Sony for removing the feature.
Then blame them for putting it in there in the first place.
Any vendor that sells loss-leading goods like that has to be careful not to make their products too useful in ways that don't earn them back their loss (see: CueCat, among others). Free OtherOS support is fundamentally a feature that undermined their own business model and was obviously going to bite them, all the more so when they lost so much on each unit.
They crippled it somewhat (e.g. no access to GPU) to reduce the attractiveness, but they should have simply charged a little extra to unlock the feature (to cover the loss plus a modest profit), like they did with the PS2's Linux HDD add-on. Less security concerns, and less money lost inadvertently subsidising universities and the military.
Doubtless the whole thing was one of Krazy Ken Kutaragi's brilliant ideas; engineering for engineering's sake.
Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
It depends on the country.
In Japan, the original (silver console) launch, the 20 GB was 20% cheaper than the 60 GB but it did not include the chrome trim, flash card readers, silver logo, and Wi-F, coming in at 60,000 yen. Back then, this was only 270 Euros (at the time, about $375). In the US it launched in two models, one at 499 and one at 599 (the extra C-note brought you from 20 GB to 60GB and got you one HDMI port, one Ethernet port and four USB ports instead of 2 HDMI ports, three Ethernet ports and six USB ports as promised prior to the delay from November to March). In Europe the launch was the same, only euros instead of dollars, which back in 2006 was around $1.4 USD per Euro (so much more expensive). In Singapore, it started at 799 with an 80 GB model including IPTV.
I am going to jump a little off the topic of your post but stay relevant to the article here:
The models that dropped to $400 and below did not include backwards compatability which got many people upset because the launch PS3s are the only way to get upconverted PS2 games. I suppose if anyone wants to prove they really bought a PS3 for the Other OS feature, they had the opportunity to register their PS3 with Sony, which includes space on the registration form that came with the PS3 for comments, including a specific question asking what influenced their decision to purchase. If anyone filled one out and wrote down Linux and PS3 games, they might have a real lawsuit. If they just wrote down linux, there was no need to update the firmware.
Meanwhile, Sony has always been selling the PS3 as an entertainment system. If you have been using it to wash your car, your expectations regarding continuing use are not valid. There is nothing to stop you from using your PS3 to wash your car, but when Sony stops making the same size PS3 and the new PS3 slim doesn't work as well, you can't get mad that one day you might not be able to wash your car anymore. You might have to go to a car wash.
Now, if you replace wash your car with supercomputing research, you have the situation the air force is in (the car wash here is an expensive government contract devoted to air force needs).
The lawsuits noted in the summary are not related to this complaint.
http://hackaday.com/2010/05/11/ps3-patch-allows-linux-installation/
If Sony is impaled that far up his ass, why doesn't he have a Sony Vaoi laptop?
Because his job is trash guy for a local hot springs and he doesn't have money coming out of his ass, just Sony stuck up it. He doesn't want a laptop anyway. He wants a tolerable games machine, because if he's going to have a computer, it should be able to play games. Makes sense to me.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
the mighty US warmachine does not have a way to work this out with Sony for the specific consoles involved ? seems very unlikely (if this madness continues they might end up sony's only customer so Sony might do well to take care of them)
beware he who denies you access to information for in his mind, he already deems himself to be your master (SMAC-ish)
Buy a hardware from Linux Vendors ONLY. You can always install Windows, Mac OSX, whatever, however if you lock your self into hardware that is planned to be obsolete, well you get what you pay for, not...you actually paid more, fools.
I remember when they use to say, no one ever got fired for buying IBM.
I also remember when they use to say, no one ever got fired for buying Microsoft.
The fact is, if the hardware will run Linux, it will run Windows and probably Mac OS/X (technically just another Linux/Unix distro). However the opposite can not be stated as fact.
If you buy a Windows Computer or a MacIntosh computer, there very will may be components (BIOS, Graphics Processing Unit, chips that control sound, ...) that will NOT run in Linux.
So now this is true for the Sony PS3 now...why is anyone surprised.
Embrace, Extend, Extinguish...over and over and over and over again.
If your hardware runs Linux on day 1, it will run Linux 10 years from that day.
Be smart buy from either ZaReason or System 76. and ugh if you must, install Windows, at least down the road the hardware can be used for something constructive...say a DVD recorder on steroids, specialized firewall/router, home file server or a Home Controller or a game station.
Its ALWAYS smart to have options. Remember if you do NOT have at least THREE choices, you have no choice!