Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Sony Encourages Linux On Their Phones

Posted by Soulskill on from the mixed-signals dept.

neokushan writes "Sony has been in the news a lot lately — from the PSN downtime and the identity theft issue that came with it, to the numerous court cases launched to try and quell the PS3 hacking scene. It may come as a surprise to many, then, that Sony's mobile smartphone division has taken an almost polar-opposite approach — they're actively encouraging developers to create, modify and install customized Linux kernels into their latest lineup of phones, including the Xperia Play, the device that was once known as the 'PlayStation Phone.'"

31 of 212 comments (clear)

  1. Well that's nice. by Microlith · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Sony-Ericsson is almost completely unrelated to SCEI. They are in many ways just as clueless (though nowhere near as malicious, apparently.)

    Now if only hardware developers would start pushing their board files and drivers upstream in Linux so that porting NEW kernels to hardware wouldn't be such a bitch. Too bad Google doesn't encourage that.

    1. Re:Well that's nice. by lennier1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Sony-Ericsson is almost completely unrelated to SCEI.

      First the music section installs rootkits on the computers of paying customers, then the gaming division removes OtherOS and starts a witch-hunt on GeoHot and others who want to tinker with the products they bought legally.

      Sorry, but I don't have any desire to wait until the phone division finds a way to take an even bigger dump on the heads of their customer base.

    2. Re:Well that's nice. by causality · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Sony Ericsson is owned by both Sony and Ericsson but operates as an independent entity, much like Sony-BMG was. Would it be better if it was named Ericsson-Sony instead?

      No, it would be better if upper management at Sony and other corporations start appreciating that once you become known for taking anti-customer actions, you're going to tarnish your name to the point that you very well may affect public perception of unrelated divisions and subsidiaries. It's exactly like the marketing concept of "branding", something the suits already understand very well. They just seem to think it only applies when they want it to.

      --
      It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
    3. Re:Well that's nice. by SETIGuy · · Score: 2

      Don't worry, in about 6 months, the Sony part of Sony-Ericsson will find out about it, and their lawyers will put a stop to it.

      --
      Support SETI@home
  2. don't fall for this, hacker suckers. by LikwidCirkel · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Will they remove this feature in a few months after the phones are selling well and then call the people who still want custom software criminals and hackers? I wouldn't get my hopes up. History often repeats.

    1. Re:don't fall for this, hacker suckers. by Dynetrekk · · Score: 2

      But most importantly, you may void the warranty of your phone if you decide to unlock it

      That's typical, isn't it? Please hack on it, but don't blame us if you fuck up, because it's your fault. Give us your results if you are successful, because that's cheaper than doing it ourselves. Love and kisses, Sony.

      How does installing new software on a pc/phone/whatever void warranty? Oh, that's right, it doesn't if you're buying from a sensible company.

    2. Re:don't fall for this, hacker suckers. by errandum · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Well... Rooting a phone is not just "installing new software". It goes a bit beyond that. If you ruin your motherboard flashing a new ROM, custom or not, it'll still brick it and not many companies will replace it.

      Just because you can access the bootloader in some way or another doesn't mean sony is responsible if you decide to fill it up with crap that then bricks your phone.

      I'm more of the opinion that every phone should have a backup of it's own kernel somewhere with a one way connection. If it bricked it should just send what it had to the phone. Right now it's a bit idiotic to say you should mod your phone but not having any kind of failsafe for those who do that.

      And just on a sidenote, I own a rooted Desire (CM 7 yada yada), But I'm under no illusions that if it ever malfunctions I would get any kind of help from HTC.

    3. Re:don't fall for this, hacker suckers. by HiThere · · Score: 2

      Given the *way* they revoked the PlayStation capability, once is more than enough. Of course, that wasn't once. That came after the rootkits that they released on CDs. That came after the official comment (paraphrase)"Most users don't know what a rootkit is, so it doesn't matter.". That came after SONY tried to pass the blame onto another company that they hired specifically to do that job. That came after the repairs to the rootkit that left you vulnerable to any web site you visited. There were several other instances. SONY was already on my "Do not patronize" list before this started happening for other actions which were, relatively, so minor that I've forgotten them.

      O yes, and SONY always will fight in court rather than pay even minimal compensation to people it has injured. This is reasonable on their behalf, because they courts generally won't make them pay damages.

      If you want to do business with them, I'm not the one who will get hurt.

      --

      I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
  3. I tried that once... by Delgul · · Score: 5, Informative

    It was called OtherOS. Never again...

    1. Re:I tried that once... by Maestro4k · · Score: 2

      They didn't buy Ericsson. Sony Ericsson is a separate company, jointly owned by Sony and by Ericsson. And fortunately apparently not much infused with the Sony corporate misculture.

      Doesn't matter, for many of us the sheer fact that Sony is in the company's name, along with Sony's past behavior, is enough to make us steer way, way clear of anything to do with the company. Besides, Sony obviously has some kind of stake in the company (given the name), so who's to say they wouldn't buy out Ericsson's stake in the future and take it over? Pretty much nothing, it's easily doable if Sony decides it wants to, and they're obviously interested in the venture or they wouldn't have a stake in it. So those of us that don't trust Sony at all will continue to avoid Sony Ericsson as well.

  4. This isn't that unusual by jimicus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It is absolutely commonplace to find that in companies the size of Sony, different divisions are effectively operated as wholly separate companies and about the only thing they share is the company name and logo.

    Separate directors, separate budgets, in some cases even separate legal entities. It shouldn't be too surprising to find they have different attitudes to things like this.

    1. Re:This isn't that unusual by somersault · · Score: 2

      Don't try to talk sense, they'll just flame you.. :p even in the small business where I work, the depts are vastly different, with different directors and budgets like you say, as well as different cultures/morality.

      --
      which is totally what she said
    2. Re:This isn't that unusual by JanneM · · Score: 2

      different divisions are effectively operated as wholly separate companies

      And in this case, of course, it really is a wholly separate company, owned 50-50 by Sony and Ericsson, and based out of Sweden, one continent away from Sony headquarters.

      --
      Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
    3. Re:This isn't that unusual by YoopDaDum · · Score: 2

      Absolutely. Plus the fact that for Android smartphones SE is the underdog and need something to catch up. Typically the underdog is the one having the most incentive to open the platform to differentiate themselves. See Sprint, pushing more openness compared to Verizon/AT&T (no cap, Google Voice...). It's just the same thing here for handsets. And it's important that these underdogs have some amount of success, as in the end this is how a platform move toward more and more openness. The leaders typically would prefer locking everything tight to extract the more money out of everything. Only the underdogs will accept sacrificing this because they have nothing to loose. So I understand many people have upset with Sony, but this kind of attitude should be encouraged even if it's not taken for idealistic reasons at all...

  5. Re:So.. by 91degrees · · Score: 3, Informative

    Perhaps you should make up your own mind. This is just information. It's not a decision.

  6. Re:For Now by Microlith · · Score: 2

    The blog just explains how to do something that people have been doing for years - rooting/reflashing your phone with 3rd party tools. I've done this on several phones. They can't stop it happening.

    Sure they can. All they have to do is what Motorola did, and while they can't stop you from rooting your phone, they can make real upgrades impossible. All it requires is for Android to be dependent on some new kernel feature, and suddenly you're forced to either do nasty workarounds or do without.

  7. track record by marcello_dl · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I do not think sony will pull another stunt with the phones. They made enough trouble for their users already.

    But I am not gonna buy stuff from them, they showed no respect, I show no interest.
    Or I should say "they show no respect" because blaming anonymous for a stolen data case without no solid proof sounds like a tactic to deflect attention from the lousy way they lost data or push the equation hacking=bad, which has many more counterexamples than the equation corporation=bunch of psychos.

    --
    ---- MISSING MISCELLANEOUS DATA SEGMENT --- [sigdash] trolololol
  8. Android is barely "Linux"... by the+linux+geek · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Android barely qualifies as a form of "Linux." Yes, it uses a Linux kernel, but the fact is largely incidental - there's no real technical reason that Android couldn't be built on BSD or even WinCE if Google or an OEM wanted it. It isn't close to POSIX-compatible, it only runs "managed" (VM-based) apps, and it isn't even open-source as of 3.0.

    Of course, this will result in a wave of posts about how Google loves open-source, about how Linux is Linux, and how Google has assured us that the 3.0 source is coming Real Soon Now...

    1. Re:Android is barely "Linux"... by the+linux+geek · · Score: 2

      Whether or not that's the reason, a product without released source code just isn't open-source, and no amount of rationalizing it will change that.

    2. Re:Android is barely "Linux"... by the_humeister · · Score: 2

      Android barely qualifies as a form of "Linux." Yes, it uses a Linux kernel, but the fact is largely incidental - there's no real technical reason that Android couldn't be built on BSD or even WinCE if Google or an OEM wanted it. It isn't close to POSIX-compatible, it only runs "managed" (VM-based) apps, and it isn't even open-source as of 3.0.

      What are you even talking about? Here's the problem when referring to "Linux" as the system rather than using the term to refer to the kernel. Take Debian for example. Is it "Linux"? What if you replace the kernel with the FreeBSD kernel, does that still qualify or not? A much better way to describe these systems is by the distribution name, and the second best way is to describe them by the core system itself. So, for example, Debian 6.0, Slackware, and Gentoo are GNU systems that is usually running on top of the Linux kernel.

    3. Re:Android is barely "Linux"... by Superken7 · · Score: 2

      What do you mean, it just happens to run a linux kernel? Linux is a kernel! (and nothing more)

      "Android barely qualifies as a form of "Linux." Yes, it uses a Linux kernel, but the fact is largely incidental - there's no real technical reason that Android couldn't be built on BSD or even WinCE if Google or an OEM wanted it."

      Debian barely qualifies as a form of "Linux." Yes, it uses a Linux kernel, but the fact is largely incidental - there's no real technical reason that Debian couldn't be built on BSD or even WinCE if Google or an OEM wanted it.

      Oops, wait: there is Debian GNU/NetBSD and the like...

      C'mon, Android is linux with an application layer over it. Just like most distributions are a kernel with more layers+apps on top. It is as much a form of linux as any other distribution.

      Android just happens to have set a tight control on what apps can do and cannot by limiting them to the API the framework offers. And frankly, I wished linux distributions agreed on such a standard, too. Maybe that way apps would be easier to code, apps could be reused across distributions, and app quality would hopefully improve (due to the application layer providing a better abstraction). I think that would help adoption on the desktop, and sure as hell it would reduce the vast amount of "fragmentation" the linux desktop community currently suffers from. IMHO.

    4. Re:Android is barely "Linux"... by ndogg · · Score: 2

      What is Linux?

      No, seriously, what is Linux?

      In spite of all his craziness, RMS and the FSF are right about one thing, Linux is just a kernel. Ubuntu, Red Hat, Suse, etc. could all be built on a different kernel. In fact, just to prove the point, Debian built a port of their OS to a version using the FreeBSD kernel.

      So, IMO, anything using the Linux kernel, POSIX-compatible or not, is a Linux OS. Otherwise, you're playing pedantics.

      --
      // file: mice.h
      #include "frickin_lasers.h"
    5. Re:Android is barely "Linux"... by chrb · · Score: 2

      You lose a left testicle. It is trivial to run ARM Debian on Android, leaving several thousand packages that run without any recompilation whatsoever.

    6. Re:Android is barely "Linux"... by Microlith · · Score: 2

      Android uses the Linux kernel much in the same way TiVO does. The reason Android picked Linux before Google bought them was because it's an active kernel with lots of ARM support already in place. But due to how Google uses it the kernel (and due to Android as a whole, the greater open source community) doesn't really benefit.

      And regardless of whatever you think, it's more "open source" than any other mobile os.

      Shipping, yes. I'd rather see devices running MeeGo, which is a much more standard distribution and encourages work to the core be done upstream instead of behind closed doors (with licenses that permit it to be closed.)

  9. That's just the Ericsson part acting up... by mynickslongerthanurs · · Score: 2

    The Sony part will soon remedy the error with a firmware 'update'.

  10. Re:I like Linux by Threni · · Score: 2

    I'm sort of the other way around. I don't like Sony, but I take each product on its merits and wouldn't cut off my nose to spite my face just because they did this or that in the past.

  11. Re:For Now by Microlith · · Score: 2

    I'm guessing you're talking about not releasing drivers for new versions of an OS, but that doesn't stop custom versions of the old OS.

    No. I'm talking about the fact that Android requires changes to the kernel that aren't the same between every revision, and if a newer version of Android requires that kernel then you either have to hack around that dependency or you have to do without whatever required it.

    You can't expect the hardware manufacturer to provide support forever.

    Which is totally irrelevant to the point I made in this post, and relevant to a different one where I said they should put up the effort to get their board support file and drivers in the upstream, which means users could possibly support themselves. This is about Motorola's anti-modder efforts which forces you to be dependent upon them.

    Have Motorola made a habit of not providing upgrades for their devices?

    Many of their devices have received none. Some got versions of Android from a year prior. And regardless, when Motorola decides to stop supporting your device, you're shit out of luck and should buy a new one like a good consumer should.

  12. Re:Nokia by Microlith · · Score: 4, Informative

    Most vendors publish (some) of the necessary drivers. However in truly incompetent fashion, they do so by dropping the kernel sources they used for the device. No history, no upstream contribution, just a tarball.

    This attitude is heavily encouraged by Google forking permanently from the mainline and not maintaining an upstream of its own, resulting in tons of dead-end drivers for these devices that have to be reworked between Android versions. On top of that, you have the problem that userspace drivers for most video chips are built against Bionic, rendering them unusable on non-Android platforms. This leaves you stuck with software-only for video and no 3D at all.

    Sadly there's no guarantee that MeeGo will free us from that, but at least using glibc/Xorg (and eventually Wayland) means that ports of other OSes with full hardware support (including 3D) is more likely, as opposed to now where it's either second-rate via chroot+vnc or software rendering only.

  13. Current Sony Android phones are a joke by lanner · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Just go over to the xda-devellopers website and see how great Sony's Android phones are. They are crap. The first gen was released on Android 1.6 when 2.1 was already out (or at least 2.0), and Sony never offered an update. The phone hardware is substandard. Sony support of their phones is junk.

    Wait about two years, look back to now and see if they were telling to truth. If you want a preview, go back two years and look at what Sony was saying then, and then look at now. Get the idea? Yea.

  14. Re:I like Linux by fremean · · Score: 2

    it was clearly marketed because I got wind of it - and if you knew the life I live (no tv, no radio, don't read the news paper) you'd understand that it's some pretty potent marketing if it's going to reach me.

    My decision to purchase a PS3 (the only console I've ever purchased) came as a direct result of it having OtherOS and giving me something to play with.

    As far as I'm concerned, Sony sold me a 4 legged table to eat breakfast off and do my homework on, then snuck into my house late one night and chopped off one of the legs leaving a note saying that the 4th leg was a security risk and the table still holds breakfast even if it might not hold books.

  15. Re:I like Linux by hawkinspeter · · Score: 2

    OtherOS was directly advertised as a feature. They've slightly amended the page, but the details are still there: http://www.playstation.com/ps3-openplatform/index.html

    --
    You're a temporary arrangement of matter sliding towards oblivion in a cold, uncaring universe