Why the PS3′s Loss of Linux Isn’t Much of a Loss.
Sony has announced that it would remove the ‘Other OS’ feature that allowed the installation of Linux from their “Phat” PS3s with their 3.21 update due to “security concerns”. While the Slim PS3s never came with Linux support, the real reason for the complete removal of Linux across all it models is due to Sony’s fear of piracy as recent hacks by Geohot have used ‘Other OS’ as an exploit.
As someone who has installed and run various Linux distros on multiple PS3s since it was first available (two launch PS3s; 60GB JPN & 60GB US), allow me to explain why the loss of Linux on the PS3 isn’t much of a loss at all. Linux on the PS3 did serve a unique purpose for individuals interested in IBM Cell development, and organizations that have used the PS3 in clusters (such as the military), but those machines are dedicated to a specific task and are not used to play games or log onto PSN (and won’t be updating firmware anyways). The real people that this firmware update will impact are casual Linux users that play games, log onto PSN, as well as use Linux. The problem is, Linux on the PS3 was never really that useful to begin with, and people that have actually used Linux on the PS3 (like myself), are very few, and very far between. And many of those people have come to the conclusion that Linux on the PS3 has very little utility and isn’t really more then a technical curiosity.
The biggest issue with Linux on the PS3 is that you only have access to 256MB of RAM. But in practice you really have much less then 256MBs, due to various overhead you actually only have closer to a paltry 196MBs of RAM that is actually accessible by the system. Consider that the applications and everything else needs to fit in this 196MB space. Companies such as Yellow Dog Linux have made a business of making a stripped down Linux distro specifically for the PS3 that conserves those limited resources. Even in 2006, when the PS3 was first released this was considered small, in the modern context, its plain ridiculous.
The second problem is that ‘Other OS’ doesn’t have drivers for the RSX, which means the graphics are largely handled solely by the PPE core of the Cell processor. Combined with the anemic availability of RAM it means that the default resolution for many PS3 Linux distros is an odd 1124×644 resolution. There are easy ways of adjusting this, but due to its limitations the PS3 has difficulty handling higher resolutions very well, much less anything relatively graphically complicated without dedicated SPE programming.
The third real issue is that you need to find PowerPC (PPC) stable builds of applications you want to use. PPC has not been aggressively maintained since Apple moved to x86 for OSX. This means that a lot of crucial programs, such as Flash, plain don’t work. The current workaround to get Flash functioning on the PS3 is through Gnash, which is far from ideal, and isn’t completely stable or compatible in all situations. Linux running on a x86 machine does not have these problems. For the casual user not interested in the Cell processor, any cheap Atom-based netbook or an old desktop would functionally be superior in running Linux to the PS3 both in terms of compatibility as well as overall performance.
Linux on the PS3 was really meant for IBM Cell development, and for that niche it functioned wonderfully. There are numerous examples of PS3 clusters that perform admirably for the time. However, now that general processors are incredibly fast, and the emergence of affordable GPGPUs, the PS3 for use in clusters has their days numbered.
By principle, its understandable to be angry at Sony for a loss of functionality, however, that anger should also equally be directed at George Hotz, whose hack has prompted the removal of ‘Other OS’. After all, the PS3 was the only console to have officially supported Linux out of the box, and they have kept it in the PS3s only until it was exploited. There was a degree of good faith to put this seemingly ancillary feature into the PS3 in the first place.
The bigger issue for the average PS3 user isn’t where to put the blame, there is a serious risk that a completely hacked system would mean that trophy data could also be altered; the PSP doesn’t have trophies for this very reason. The authenticity of any trophy could come into question. Worse, it does open the possibility for cheats and hacks for competitive online games to be easier to implement as well. I few people with a hacked console could negatively impact the gaming experience of other players online.
Outside of a limited niche of Cell development, Linux on the PS3 has been close to a novelty for all but a limited few. As a loss of feature it won’t be missed. But the sadder reality is that even while the implementation of Linux on the PS3 was indeed shoddy, it did give full access to another OS and the Cell itself. There have been some interesting results by the commercial industry with the PS3 Linux, but the community in general was always small and has been diminishing gradually. “Homebrewing” really never took off on the PS3 outside of some sporadic examples, even for a system that was open from day one, perhaps its because of the limitations I’ve presented here, but also perhaps because ‘homebrewing’ needs the attraction of more nefarious intentions as well.
