Sony... I am disappoint.

Being engrossed in a few new RPs here on the site, I hadn't turned on my PlayStation 3 since about the end of March. Turns out, in my absence, Sony decided it would be a good idea to release Firmware v. 3.21. Firmware v. 3.21 obliterates any option of installing an "Other OS" (such as Linux) on a separate partition of the hard drive.

The ability to legally install Linux and use the PS3 as a high-powered PC (and at the console's release it was heavily condoned by the developers) was one of the system's biggest draws. It was perfect for gamers and game developers alike, but apparently Sony cares about neither anymore.

Just recently I began work on a video game project of my own, and I spent hours upon hours researching the best method to go about the actual programming. Since I do not own a high-end computer (all I have right now is a tiny netbook) with which to design a game, I thought it would be great to buy a new HDD for my PS3 and install Linux on it, using Ogre and C# to program the game.

Well, looks like Sony has foiled my plans.

Really, what is the point of removing this feature? The newer models of PS3s (the slim ones especially) were already nerfed enough. Did they really need to go and do this? As far as I can tell, deleting the "Install Other OS" function is the only thing update 3.21 accomplishes. Actually, that's not true. I've been looking around the web and have discovered countless individuals complaining that they are no longer able to sign in to the PSN correctly, that most of their games no longer function, in-game freezing, and myriad of other issues that were definitely not present before the update.

For me, the only repercussion (so far--I have not tried to load up any games yet) is that I can no longer rely on my PS3 to create my future video game. But for others the ramifications have been and could be much more severe.

What are your thoughts, RPG community? Has this affected you in any way? Am I preaching to the choir, or to a mass of individuals who could care less?

I have a launch unit, could have installed Linux but never bothered. So i dont really care about the update removing it, its a feature only a small handful of people used anyway and couldnt be used by anyone buying a new PS3 for since nearly a year now (because only the Slim's are on sale new and the feature was already removed for them). So Sony getting rid of it to kill piracy in the egg makes perfect sense.

And i wouldnt pay to much attention to people saying that the updates caused other problems, with ever update and release of a game you get a group of people saying that its had some form of negative effect on their system.

How exactly does removing the option to install Linux prevent piracy? I don't get it.

If the Slims already had this feature removed, then essentially Sony released this update to spite consumers who bought older PS3 models. What were they trying to do? Level the playing field? New customers can't install Linux, so old customers who actually payed $500 for their systems shouldn't be able to either?

I booted up Heavy Rain last night after installing the update (I had to do it in order to access PSN) and I actually had some problems. Had to restart the game three times during play due to fatal glitches, like random characters freezing, therefore being unable to trigger events.

I'm hoping that formatting a hard drive using the PS3's format utility does not install all current updates. If that's the case, then I'm good, because I planned on purchasing a new, bigger HDD on which to install Linux and development software, and I won't need PSN for that.

The only thing is, I'll have to physically switch between hard drives when I want to switch between Linux and PS3. What a pain.

It was removed to prevent piracy, Geohot (famous hacker) managed to find an exploit where he might be able to make a custom firmware that would allow people to play pirate games and install it as another OS (and according to some news today he may have just managed to do it). Thats why Sony removed the feature.

I guess it makes sense. But why not just use the update to increase security measures, rather than nerfing one of the original console's best features? In fact, increasing security measures might have been a really good idea, because already people are creating CFW (custom firmware) for the PS3 that emulates the 3.21 update while retaining the "Other OS" feature. So what Sony has done is not fix their problem, but pissed off hundreds of thousands of legitimate users.

http://geohotps3.blogspot.com/ wrote:. . . some people seem to think CFW will enable some sort of piracy. It won't. It'll just be a custom version of 3.21 that doesn't lose OtherOS support. Hacking isn't about getting what you didn't pay for, it's about making sure you do get what you did.

If Sony is going to turn my Fatboy model into a Slim one with these upates, then I'm going to demand $200 reimbursement. I'm not paying for features that they are taking away from me.