Gitbrew Releases OtherOS++ PS3 Linux Dual Boot 240
An anonymous reader writes "Gitbrew has proudly released otherOS++ Linux Dual Boot v1.0b1, enabling PS3 users to install an alternative OS to their console with full access to all system hardware, including all 8 CELL cores (making the PS3 the world's most affordable supercomputer). For more information check out the installation instructions and source code."
Re:Benchmarks! (Score:5, Interesting)
The PS3 suddenly became an interesting product again :-) Now lets give us some benchmarks of some scientific number crunching apps!
Not to me. Sony is at war with its customers; that's been evident since XCP. Hell, I felt dirty buying a broken Sony stereo for ten bucks, even though Sony didn't profit from my purchase.
How do you know the PS3s don't have hardware rootkits? I know of no other company that's deliberately installed malware on its products. I avoid Sony like the plague and can't understand why anyone would buy anything from them, or how it's has stayed in business, let alone how it can actually have fanbois.
Re:world's most affordable supercomputer (Score:3, Interesting)
Summary missed the most important part of story (Score:5, Interesting)
Apparently, Geoff Levand was one of the people behind this release [1]. Geoff Levand is the programmer who worked for Sony supporting OtherOS and made the ill-fated and oft-quoted promise that Sony would never ever remove OtherOS from fat PS3s. [2] Looks like Geoff just kicked his former employer in the nuts. Go Geoff!
[1] http://psgroove.com/content.php?1029-PS3-Dual-Boot-GameOS-Linux-CFW-Released [psgroove.com]
[2] http://lists.ozlabs.org/pipermail/cbe-oss-dev/2010-February/007202.html [ozlabs.org]
Re:Benchmarks! (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm sorry, but "different branch of Sony" is still Sony, especially if it has "Sony" in the name. Now, if Sony the Parent Company had publicly apologized, and fixed the problem but no, Sony released a supposed fix for the rootkit that made things even worse.
In fact, Sony has proven again and again that they want people to buy their products, but ${DEITY} help the customers if they truly start getting creative with the stuff that they paid money for.
After all the crap that Sony has done, where do you draw the line? Only when your computer is compromised? Only when you lose functionality in a Sony product that you paid for? Only when you get dragged into court? Or will you just stay quiet, suck it up, and hope that if you only purchase enough from Sony, the company will eventually treat you better?
I don't know about you, but I vote with my money, by never giving another cent to Sony.
Re:Benchmarks! (Score:5, Interesting)
The 360 wasn't an option because the crime cartel that created it will not get my dollar.
I don't get it. Yes, MS is a dirty company, but Sony makes MS look like Mother Theresa. Almost all of MS's victims were their competetitors, almost all Sony's victims were their customers. I avoid MS products because I simply don't like most of them.
If I'd done to Sony's computers what they did to mine, I'd be in prison (my then-teenaged daughter worked in a record store and deliberately installed the software, never dreaming that a big, reputable company would ruin her dad's PC).
One might consider that the rootkit was only possible because Microsoft's OS was insecure
MS is insecure, true, but if you can convince a user to install your program with root priveleges, you can pwn any OS. Like I said, I had autoplay shut off, but my daughter trusted Sony. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.
Microsoft shipped a virus on their OS install disk but you give that a pass. They pushed a patch that changed their OS to allow a single, specially crafted image on a website to root your machine to help Federal law enforcement to install spy software on PCs.
I hadn't heard of that one, would like to read about it and would appreciiate a link. Was the virus deliberate, or a stupid oversight?
Does you altruism keep you from running Windows?
It's not altruism, it's mistrust. And no, I have no Microsoft software at home (I'm forced to use their crappy software at work, though). I run kubuntu. When I bought a netbook last year, Windows was only on it long enough for me to figure out how to install Linux without a CD drive.
The last MS OS I bought was XP (right after Sony rooted me and I couldn't get win 98 drivers for my sound and video cards), and the worst thing it did to me was to replace a perfectly good network driver with one that didn't work at all. But that was incompetence rather than evil.
I got tired of chasing the dragon about the time the game companies all started treating their customers like crap, and just stopped gaming.
Someone should submit a /. story "Who's more evil, Sony or Microsoft?" I would posit that MS is incompetent and/or don't care (they don't have to with their virtual monopoly), while Sony deliberately commits evil against its paying customers time and time again.
I would imagine that Sony's console probably is a better made console than Microsoft's, but I have little experience with either (I think my nephew has both).
I don't feel I have the moral high ground; I use AT&T for internet access, and that makes me feel dirty, but Comcast is my only other choice and they're as evil and more expensive.
Re:Benchmarks! (Score:4, Interesting)
We just had a respectful, rational discussion. I read your response and better understand your point of view than I did before. We were both polite and earnest in our communication. I pleasantly feel as if I have stepped through the looking glass.