Sony Apologizes for OtherOS Removal
March 28th may have been a bad day for PlayStation 3 owners using Linux on their console. Via the US PlayStation Blog, it was revealed that OtherOS, a feature that would allow users to install the Linux operating system, would be removed, due to security reasons. An outrage from PS3 owners quickly spawned, some even demanding legal action. With all the backlash, it’s only appropriate to see Sony finally make a response.
Gadget website THINQ recently send an email to Sony UK, asking them to give a response to the PS3 community, specifically the owners who used the OtherOS feature. A Sony spokesperson kindly answered them.
We are sorry if users of Linux or other operating systems are disappointed by our decision to issue a firmware upgrade which when installed disables this operating system feature. We have made the decision to protect the integrity of the console and whilst mindful of the impact on Linux or other operating system users we nevertheless felt it would be in the best interests of the majority of users to pursue this course of action.
As you will be aware we have upgraded and enhanced functionality and features of the console by numerous firmware upgrades over time and this is a very rare instance where a feature will be disabled. Further enhancements are in the pipeline.
Users do have the choice whether to install the firmware upgrade and this is clearly explained to them at the time the firmware upgrade is made available for installation. Furthermore our terms and conditions clearly state that we have the right to revise the PS3′s settings and features in order to prevent access to unauthorised or pirated content.
[Source]
26 Responses to “Sony Apologizes for OtherOS Removal”
It could go either way but people will still be mad about it. At least the responded.
It just goes to show who really reads those TOS/EULA agreements before they click on “ACCEPT”. Well when the Homebrew hacks a new OS for the PS3 there will be lots of Linux PS3′s but I would bet that like M$ they will have the ability to see who is running the unauthorized FW and will update the PS3 and PSN to counter it. It is a “PRIVATE NETWORK” for the enjoyment of PS3 users and when you have to hack a system to gain an advantage in game-play or in fee’s avoided then you deserve to have a black paper weight on your TV stand.
It doesn’t matter if you use Linux or not, removing a feature like this is WRONG. What’s to stop them from removing more features like backwards compatibilty in all the PS3s or something else?
@SPD55
What in the hell are you saying? It makes NO sense.
@Mitch
It makes perfect sense. Why would you not protect your investment?
It makes perfect sense. The PSN is a service provided by Sony. They have the right to set the requirements for participation in that service. Just like Microsoft denied service to 360s with mods.
Linux was set up on the ps3 with barriers in place. These barriers were clear message to keep out. But thats not good enough. People have to go where they are not permitted and this is the result. This is a reaction from Sony. Linux was clearly being used to hack the ps3. Why would you expect any company to tolerate that?
What is stopping sony from the continuous removal of features is the consumer. You cant continue to remove features and expect to retain a customer base.
I still dont understand how a company that continuously adds features, but takes one away for security purposes gets labeled a villain?
And dont come back with the argument that sony will just label something else a security risk and remove it. There is no other feature that is being used to hack the ps3. And based on sonys history with the psp, they will patch security holes in their system long before they resort to full blown removal. Use some common sense.
Honestly, the combat about Sony removing any features other than OS is pretty ridiculous, and makes no real legitimate point or sense.
Honestly, a lot of these complaints are just that, complaints.
The people who used it for legit purposes, it truly sucks, but if you didn’t use it at all, stop whining.
But here’s Sony choice; lose a little respect and a few idiotic customers willing to drop them over this, or lose billions of dollars, and Third Party Dev support among other things.
Nice of them to reply. I don’t remember ever seeing anything like this out of Sony before.
i like the ” i was going to use it eventually” responses. if you haven’t used it by now , than you would never use it. also for the legal action, what legal action? sony can remoe whatever features they feel can hurt the console. video games isn’t a civil right , its a hobby a luxery item. yeah it sucks for the ppl who used it for what it was , but it is what it is the slim models don’t even have this feature.
boo whooo whoooo… get over it ppl
@shaper of form:
A well thought out response. Kudos to you, sir (or ma’am).
Well people in Europe have already started to receive refunds on their PS3 purchase due to this:
http://www.playstationuniversity.com/ps3-owner-refunded-without-return-for-missing-other-os-3555/
fact is it was a feature that was promoted and sold with the system and now has been removed….if someone found a way to get around the PS3 security with an old PS2 game and Sony removed backward compatibility to fight it I wonder how many Sony sheep would be defending it while crying “please save us from the evil pirates”..?
look at all these pirates who are angry
Just because people installed linux does not make them a pirate. That said, I can understand sony doing it to stop hackers. I honestly think the biggest deterrent is the games being up to 50gb, Even if I wanted to pirate, that is a huge amount of data to download. I will just enjoy my 50+ retail games.
Actually I’m glad they did this to stop pirates, people who steal suck. I do geniuinely feel bad for the people using it legit and not pirating. I bet half those amazon people could care less about the Other OS feature, they just want to use it to get free money back which is a shame.
hello …
those who read my post on the subject must know that it was a hard days work to do the backup-format-restore-update & so being a techy myself but with a lot of data.
i don’t doubt it’s a not a problem to do so for linux users, but the lambda user it was certainly a nightmare.
i’m not against SONY on this, but on the fact that they gave it first without evaluating the risk, & then sanctionned those who used it.
even if they reintroduce the feature i won’t probably use it, unless it supports installing on external HDD & / or Live Distros support without the use of reserving internal HDD space.
i think SONY should do whatever is possible to prevent hacking this wonderful beast, i’m so sad to see a lot of ‘so called’ ‘gamers’ who want to see a console being crack open just for the sake of stealing money.
i believe still that 1 feature down causes fear in people’s mind, but if SONY gives something else in return then Geohot’s fightback with the lame CFW 3.21000 can go to .,…
let pirates on other platform & if the PS3 owners doesn’t go into the stupid world of pirates, then there will be no future fortress to violate, no ‘stupid’ intelligent people wasting their time on breaking open the system just for the fun without even considering the consequences (just like all kids!) & no more features removed.
SONY give us something in return (bigger ext hdd support / more fs, etc… LOL!) & in the future do take in consideration your users before giving then taking anything …apologies accepted!
the one to blame because of this are those following the hackers, for they want to steal, too bad for leggit users!
cheers!
Hackin is just lame that’s the bottomline and you see the result of such actions. It I was Sony I would just brick his system and keep givin him the run around. Any Console should blacklist him and any IP address he’s uses
You can thank that douchebag who hacked the PS3 for all this.
learn how to read Robotron
people in Europe? its 1 guy NeoGAF Forum moderator ‘iapetus‘ and it was from Amazon not Sony.. Sony doesn’t own you anything. Piracy, plain and simple.
Use your PS3 for what it’s really made for TO PLAY GAMES. If you are so sad that they took out your Linux walk 5 steps to your real computer and use it. Stop crying over the removal of Linux…. Linux sucks anyway.
@pacman lol Linux sucks ? try telling that to the server world.. It may suck to you because your feeble mind cant grasp anything that isn’t point and click lol
I’d rather lose a feature not really used than have to either continually download patches to stop every hack or potential security risk to my console ( or have people hacking games and cheating like on the wii or 360 ) we have enough noobs ruining our online gameplay already without them being able to do it in every game around .
yes , I blame those who couldn’t be happy with what they had and needed to find ways to access what they shouldn’t .
I know some are saying what about legitimate researchers using ps3s ? they still can since they aren’t using psn or playing games .
and those saying they only hack to show security risks are full of shit . there weren’t any security risks until they spent 3 years trying to find them
there is zero legitimate reason to hack a gaming console except to pirate software . it isn’t to run apps because you don’t need to .
@ Pacman
I don’t even need those five steps… I just gotta swivel…lol
@Pacman I agree
User your Playstation 3 for what it was meant for! Playing games.
Why are people using their PS3′s to listen to music, view pictures, surf the web, watch BD movies, socialize, Linux, streaming netflix, or downloading movies or TV shows.
The PS3 was made to PLAY GAMES, and it does an excellent job at doing that. You don’t see Sony advertising that it can do everything, it’s a GAMING CONSOLE PEOPLE not some type of media hub.
If you wanted some type of media hub get your self a Mac mini, for ~$599 it can do all of that, it’s not like any of you who bought the 60GB console ever paid close to that, so why get those features.
@Caphead – Linux does suck you don’t see websites, scientists, or any IT server room using it. Only Windows!
@ FJ1100 You are ABSOLUTELY RIGHT! There is ZERO reason for someone to hack a gaming console except for pirating. Great Job Sony! That will show those hackers who use Linux! Everyone knows that Linux is only used by hackers and hackers are pirates and thief’s. Now that the feature is gone that guarantees that they won’t be able to hack the PS3 or use Linux anymore.
@BlueMiles
Obviously since the PS3 plays games, it must be retarded to use it for anything else. I must therefore apologize for being the scum of the earth by having used linux, storing 200GB worth of movies and music on my PS3, and for surfing the net on it.
Here is where common sense (which apparently a lot of the ignorant people are lacking) really must prevail.
PS3 around release time: ~$499
Cheap desktop (which is unable to play modern games: ~$300
Ability to play next gen games AND have a PC: ~$800
Maybe your parents bought you everything you wanted, but some of us had to prioritize. Not all of us have the cash to drop (or have someone else for that matter) for all the different systems. I was in the Army, but didn’t want to spend all my cash on both a game system and a new PC. Nor did I want to buy a PC dedicated to gaming since I would end up spending way more than a cheap desktop and a PS3.
The PS3 prior to the latest update solved both of those concerns. All the major features of having a PC minus the ability to play modern games – but oh wait – you could launch PS3 games on the PS3′s OS so it wasn’t a huge deal.
Don’t be ridiculous, if one can do most of what you want, there is nothing wrong or even strange about using it to it’s full capability. Even the ORIGINAL PS1 allowed this via playing music CDs. If you want a system that doesn’t allow other media go back and grab yourself a cartridge system – oh wait, you probably aren’t old enough to know about em eh?
“There is ZERO reason for someone to hack a gaming console except for pirating. Great Job Sony! That will show those hackers who use Linux! Everyone knows that Linux is only used by hackers and hackers are pirates and thief’s. Now that the feature is gone that guarantees that they won’t be able to hack the PS3 or use Linux anymore.”
Lets not forget that some people just like to learn about technology. Linux on PS3′s doesn’t enable cheating in online games. Google lag switches if you wanna know how they do it. GeoHotz didn’t enable piracy. This type of logic is one of the most disturbing things to me. The ignorance itself is astounding. Linux isn’t the great enabler of hacking. People that use linux aren’t all hackers. In fact if there is such an issue with linux/unix lets go ahead and start writing almost all of the servers the internet is run on, and get em all disabled. They are the cause for piracy! Therefore the only effective solution is to disable the internet!!! [End SARCASM] And something that many of you obviously don’t know – a lot of the security updates on your PC are due to exploits hackers found – and then reported or created a fix to themselves. You wanna say hackers are the bane of technology, go ahead and roll your security back to the windows 95 era.
I applaud you for insulting people that are different than you, its no different than saying that all soldiers are baby killers, all germans are nazis, all americans are bent on genocide: it’s this ignorance that plagues our society in every aspect that is the real issue. Just because someone used a feature you didn’t or runs another OS than you do does not make them inferior, or give you the right to insinuate it’s for illegal/evil/insert whatever negative idea here purposes.
And to clarify for those of you who can’t stand to read, to sum it up, linux isn’t for pirates (windows & OSX works just as well if that’s your thing), and more importantly PIRACY/USE OF PIRATED GAMES DOES NOT EXIST (NOR HAS IT) ON THE PS3, NEITHER PRE NOR POST PATCH. Read it again. If you still can’t comprehend that, try going out into the world once in a while, learn what the phrase “common sense” means, and try opening up your mind a bit. Ignorance really should be a crime, it does horrible things throughout the world and history. Oh wait, you probably know nothing of that either. Heh, way to waste my time huh?
@SabreGhost
I just happened to stumble upon this old post. Obviously you did not get my sarcasm at all…. or maybe I didn’t get yours? Sorry I made you write all that. You really should have gotten it was sarcasm when I wrote “it’s not like any of you who bought the 60GB console ever paid close to that”
Or when I said “Linux does suck you don’t see websites, scientists, or any IT server room using it. Only Windows!”(Most web-server on the Internet use Linux). Or what about when I wrote “Linux is only used by hackers and hackers are pirates and thief’s”.
PS I’ve been working PROFESSIONALLY with technology for many many years, so I know a little bit to say the least. And was homeless as a kid, so no I did not have parents that bought me everything.
@SabreGhost
I showed a friend your post and also had a good laugh. I completely missed it but what about this line “You don’t see Sony advertising that it can do everything” You must have realized it was sarcastic then… no?