PSN offline for days

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by slysnake

You know, is this not all just a massive wake-up call for Sony? You could say it is their fault they got hacked, since the store almost all of their users' information unencrypted, so once someone finds that information, they have no trouble actually accessing it. You could also say they have made many more enemies in the past months, especially with their affairs with 'George Hotz', the guy who put linux on his PS3 and told other people viewing his blog how to do it to their own PS3's. Had they not taken such a hardline approach with this talented young man, none of this would have happened....

---

Scrapping Linux functionality was stupid, should have turned into a selling point. Airtraffic-control used a cluster of PS3's because of the raw processing power, how can you NOT see the marketing-potential? 'It only does everything' is their slogan ffs. But no Sony just scrapped Linux

I know, it's a real shame Sony took such a hard-line approach to it. The Sony is an amazingly powerful machine, and, what puzzles me more is why the choose to prosecute these people when Microsoft just doesn't care a damn if people flash their xbox 360's! If they are worrid about people pirating games, the people who do that on consoles is a very small minority, since it is actually incredibly hard to 'hack' a console, hence why it took poor old George Hotz to finaly do it. Sony needs to quit being so paranoid, encrypt their data and passwords, and start producing some decent games like they used to! :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Fragony

Scrapping Linux functionality was stupid, should have turned into a selling point. Airtraffic-control used a cluster of PS3's because of the raw processing power, how can you NOT see the marketing-potential? 'It only does everything' is their slogan ffs. But no Sony just scrapped Linux

---

To Sony it wasn't. To Sony the consoles are an investment up front, an investment in software sales. It took about 18 months to get to the break even point (and similar applies to the Xbox 360). So to them if you use your hardware to run whatever software you like is a direct loss of sales: they do not want any competition in the distribution of software, because that is where they make their money. In other words, shutting down a few enthusiasts and taking an upfront PR loss is worth it to prevent a more open software market from emerging around the PS (which would cut into the PSN profits).

It is a similar story with the Apple appstores: Apple is able to extract a hefty revenue from being the one & only software retailer you can go to on the iPhones.

Sony's mistake was having OtherOS in the first place. You can't offer this, and then take it away. I understand the strategic thinking behind the move, since offering Linux from the start kept the smart hackers from trying to crack the box day 1, but taking away existing functionality will both double the effort to get it back and tick off people in the process.

The PS3 was profitable when they scrapped OtherOS, so it's removal was pointless. Just one more item to the long list of ways Sony screws over it's paying customers.

"In other words, shutting down a few enthusiasts and taking an upfront PR loss is worth it to prevent a more open software market from emerging around the PS"

Surely would they not have been better not to prevent third-party software going on the PS3, since the enemies they have now made are unlikely going to stop anytime soon, at at least, until Sony makes an effort to prevent another break-in by a bunch of 12 year old :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by slysnake

Surely would they not have been better not to prevent third-party software going on the PS3, since the enemies they have now made are unlikely going to stop anytime soon, at at least, until Sony makes an effort to prevent another break-in by a bunch of 12 year old :)

---

The point is that they have, so far, successfully asserted their one & only software retailer position on the PS. They could not care less about a 12 year old hacking his own PS, they care however about the legal precedent should a company start to market their own type of OS/PSN on the thing. They want to head that off before it gets started properly, hence their bullish attitude.

@drone: I suppose OtherOS functionality was/is needed for testing/development on the PS. For instance if the original OS was rendered inoperable, you could use OtherOS to chroot into the former one and repair the damage. It simply wasn't removed for much the same reason various games weren't removed from old versions of Microsoft Excel.