Sony’s announcement yesterdaythat OtherOS, which allows the capability to install an operating system of the user’s choice on a PlayStation 3, would be removed in a firmware update this week resulted a small shockwave of anger from people. I was really surprised by how angry people were but I suppose that should have been expected considering the level of passion amongst hardcore Linux users.
GeoHot, the hacker known for having cracked the iPhone open, is among those angered and posted arather scathing commentover on his PS3 blog shortly after the announcement was made. Today, he’s encouraging people not to update their consoles, stating that he’ll attempt to develop a custom firmware that will allow users to update without losing OtherOS support.
The thing that he’s very explicit about is that the purposes of this project are not to encourage piracy. While that may be true for the vast majority of people who just want to be using Linux on their console, we all know this story already. If he’s successful, it will only be a matter of time before less scrupulous people take advantage of the new opening.
Remains to be seen if Sony made a huge tactical error with this decision. The thought of a piece of hardware being uncracked for three years is almost unheard of today. Seems that they’re only encouraging people to try harder.
