It’s an embedded relatively fast hardware platform to play games at an expected and acceptable performance.

They say it’s because the otheros hypervisor drivers where too expensive to manage. That sucks.

Hey at least you get a more compact design and a 40nm CBE in the cech2000/slim.

The drivers and MMU filter/hypervisor all run on the 7th core and each SPE controls access to it’s local store internally. What this means is a out of bounds security model. A heap or stack overflow or any other memory corruption would have -0- effect on the native management code.

It’d take something like a DMA attack to get into secure mode considering they didn’t run the h.a.l in otheros mode/lesser privladged ppc mode while in gameos mode. They do run the browser and most XMB applets in the unprivileged mode from gameos mode and they are all sig checked then decrypted when loaded.

The x360 hacks are all thanks to the upper 30bit control vector vulnerability and a DMA attack. The ps3 doesn’t use a global address space and the hypervisor is just using hardware features that are in no way dictated by any code. It’ll be interesting to see what happens.

The hypervisor prevented access to the RSX which makes it nearly unusable to watch movies. On top of that 256 of the 512 MBs of on board RAM was reserved for the hypervisor, which made running more than a few applications impossible.

I won’t miss the lack of linux support considering how much of a let down it was in the first place.

@fdawg: nope

Linux uses the 256MiB XDR and the 256MiB DDR2 in the RSX. Push buffer operations are just blocked from the linux loader environment. The hypervisor has all it needs in it’s local store. It simply filters the MMU for calls and controls aspects of the PPE. Linux actually runs on the PPE and has acess to 6/8 SPEs.

The lack of RSX acceleration slows frames on video playbacks and rendering. I agree their browser does suck..

“@MrX not as lame as yours.
And yes I really dont get it, why anyone in right mind will chose console over PC, it have worse graphics, bad control, cant do anything
except games, and you need to buy them.”

are you just trolling or are you really that stupid?

1. Worse graphics than what? How much do you need to spend on a PC to get on par with a 360/PS3?

2. Bad control? No idea what this means. The 360 controller is one of the most comfortable devices out there. If you’re comparing it to a keyboard/mouse, which one? How much are you paying for your ergonomic wireless keyboard and mouse?

3. Can’t do anything except games? It’s a GAMES console – what do you want it to do? You put a game in and you play it. I’m sure that sounds really alien to a PC lover, given the fact you need to install it first (provided your specs are up to it and your drivers are up to date etc).

4. You need to buy your games? So really, this all boils down to the fact that you’ve spent all your pocket money on a kick-ass PC and now live on toast. If you choose to partake in illegal activities such as piracy, don’t be so stupid in attempting to use it to justify owning a PC over a games console.

@therian

You are a fool.

People don’t (usually) run GNU/Linux on a PS3 for the graphics, they run it to have access to the cell processors.

While this won’t quite as necessary soon, as we have Cell processors on peripheral cards (PCI Express I believe) starting to appear, it would still be nice to have this option.

If you are completely clueless, check this link for information on the Cell microprocessor:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_(microprocessor)

That should help you understand why this is so special. It’s basically a portable freaking supercomputer.

First of all, note this is really a news item, but it’s about a (vendor-sponsored) hackable (okay, formerly hackable) piece of hardware. Perhaps we can also regard this as a hack challenge; get Linux running on the PS3slim.

Whereas I can see Sony’s logic in discontinuing visible support for features that few customers actually use, it would be nice if they offered an “other-OS” enabled and/or an emotion-engine model. The difference initially would be only that Sony would be getting our money for the premium, vs. resellers of the classic 60GB (used) model, of which I own one. Ultimately, the premium on the fully-functional classic will rise from resellers, until PS4 is released. I wonder if they will support PS/PS2 but not PS3 on that model?

Also, I play PS, PS2, and PS3 games on my PS3, and have Ubuntu Linux installed as well. Why? Why not?

i would love to see the slim model hacked. an on another note would also love to see a line of cell mpu’s incorporated in an expandable platform {either a bare mobo or palm/net-book device} mmmmm sweet smell of progress.also on a side note… why not create kits to incorporate a breakout board or a modular board layout for vector processor stacking? and really don’t view the loss of features as an affront to the hacking community; look at it as a beautiful challenge to confront. because it is not impossible it is perhaps only improbable to execute :-p

@ hunnter
true that dood i got rid of all my older/dead cd/dvd/bd consoles lol. mainly because maintenance and basic support vanish after a few years {sighs}
so basicly to sum it up sony has done nothing to make gaming affordable even compared to pc’s.
but hey don’t take my word for it :-p
and to make a point no backward compatibility to be found or ports to other platforms for the older systems.px/p2 would be nice onna {name a brand of desktop pc /mac palm top / iphone/ bluberry / crap phone
but i digress lol …and as far as ps4 don’t hold your breath on backwards compatibility lmao only more foward thinking and a newer fruitier subtitle for a none supportive and abandoning console

I can’t understand all those tools that hold data …. There are a few options to secure data and files, but the easy one is to use a secure USB drive that really works great.

The reason they took out Linux support is probably very simple: They do not want too many people buying the PS3 and then using it as a cheap, subsidised supercomputer (or even a Linux box for nerds who want to use theirs as a 24/7 Apache server).

That, to me, is the simplest reason (and therefore the most plausible explanation.) Sony would rather forget about providing cheap computers, and only entice people who are interested in dropping lots of money on games.

Linux was put by Sony on PS/3 as a import/export legal trick into USA and EU. Somehow having the linux option meant it legally was a computer instead of a game machine and it implied diferent taxes/accounting that saved/made money for Sony Japan…

I say: Nuke them! They treat us as tax fodder with a crippled OS and then they take even that away!!!

The only acceptable thing is to dismantle the machine and use the Cell Processor in other hardware. They don’t make money on the hardware: without linux they shall never recoup it on the software!!!

Sony Game executives should do seppuku for such an honourless and despicable decision.

look to the pc gamers

1 consoles are a cheaper more constant less complicated way to play games waaaayyy less upgrading to run the software.

2 type writers DO have a use over computers. have you filled out any of those pesky old fangled employment applications or old paper forms ona computer? it sucks and sure you could scan one in to your super fast computer and custom up a template to do your ONE application but 50 bucks for an old cheap type writer is still better especially for doing more than one custom job in a day.

3. your computer doesn’t do any work any noticably faster than any 10 year old computer ever did. that is a falsehood. ever since the pentiums came out no SINGLE RUNNING application is faster as the pentium already computed faster than the human mind could process. similar to how video cards have surpassed the number of shades that the human eye can see.

but hey sounds like all of that is way over your head so go back to your slightly better than sd highdef tv’s and all of your constantly upgraded computer and keep ripping off your fps games. hell the more you rip off the lower the profit the faster aholes like me can get intellegent games back.

and no i am not claiming intellegents or correct spelling. yet i still feel smarter than you. flam away i won’t be back.

we can only hope that the release of the slim to the general market marks the point where sony will begin to allow us esoteric nerds access to the i/o ctrl and the rsx.

For me PS2 is the best I have compare with nintendo. I hope PS3 will have same reputation as PS2

This is a bit of bad news but It wont stop me purchasing the PS3 Slim. I cant wait till I get mine :D

That really sucks. I am not going to buy any console that I cannot hack. It is mine right? I should be able to play with it as I choose.

For all of you saying the controllers suck compared to a comp, you do realize you can plug a mouse and keyboard in for online use, right? Also, I am typing this right now on a slim, and the internet browser provided, while severely lacking, preforms basic tasks like reading/writing on forums and checking emails just fine. No, I can’t play flash games or go on facebook, but I don’t see the need to. My computer has been broken for a week now, and I have been doing just fine with my un-modified PS3 slim.

Lol, at this. I got my ps3 slim free when I bought my 73″ plasma screen tv, so personally don’t care. And for 300 dollars the ps3 is amazing, its a decent blu ray player, which would cost you 200+ for one of the same degree. And you can play games and surf the web store music all that good stuff. 300 dollars, sure why not, especially if your going to buy a blu ray player spend a few more dollars and get an entertainment powerhouse, for a mere 300 dollars. If you think thats a large sum of money, get a damn job ;)

Yeah, that sucks. When I first bought my PS3 (I was lucky enough to pick up the 60 gig before Sony started cutting features), I sold my computer and used my PS3 for all of the things I needed a computer for. It worked very well, actually. But then, I spent a good amount of time setting up Gentoo’s portage to compile programs specifically for the Cell processor. I had the whole thing set up to compile programs so that they could make use of the SPEs and everything.

I had a great deal of fun on that – I even developed most of my computer science projects for Web Programming, Graphics (in OpenGL), and Software Engineering on that thing. It was much easier to carry around than a mid or full tower and was snappy enough for my uses.

I got very, very, very scared when my PS3 stopped reading discs a while ago – I definitely didn’t want a non-60GB model. But then it turned out to be a simple fix – I just picked up a replacement bluray laser, pulled apart the PS3 and bluray drive, and replaced the old laser with a new one.

The one thing not mentioned in any of these posts thus far (and, to be fair, it’s an article about Linux support)…. is the fact that Sony continues to refuse to support FLAC (free lossless audio codec) via a firmware upgrade.

A PS3 for me would perform 3 primary duties, listed in order of importance:

1. Networked FLAC UPnP client from Linux server’s FLAC library

2. Blu-Ray Disc player

3. PS3 games (just a handful)

FLAC support is the biggest thing preventing me from purchasing a PS3 — I want the ability to sit down in front of the 54″ Panasonic plasma and browse through my library of 2,000+ FLAC’d albums, and stream them over the home audio theatre. This is doable with lossy mp3s, but Sony refuses to do an EASY firmware upgrade to support FLAC playback. Kills me! I’m sure Sony have their selfish reasons for not doing this, and it is their right to do so, but it still frustrates. The thing I want the PS3 for the most, is the one feature it doesn’t supply.

At this point, until/unless Sony supplies FLAC support, I’m likely best off purchasing a $120 BD player, and then spending the rest of the cash on a true FLAC UPnP client solution (such as the Denon AVR-3808ci A/V receiver, pricey as it is).

Normaster

doesnt the ps3 just search for a code on the hard drive that matches the system?if yes why cant you use a fat ps3 to put its os on an extra hard drive and take them both to your computer and just copy the code over from the slims hard drive to the fat ps3s hard drive?

I just got a 250 GB PS3 slim for christmas. My mom and me were saying about how she paid roughly 400 dollars with tax and everything for it and it did not even come with a GAME, can you believe that shit? Theres only 2 USB ports, my old one had like 4 or 6 I forget. Now it’s got buttons on the front you press where before you’d touch it to eject a disc. It does still look really good and its not really slim its the same length but shorter height and width of it. I think the games run a little bit faster to me, seems like it atleast. I just wish you could install linux on it, and play PS2 games (it says PS2/PS Saved Data but in the booklet it says it will not play PS2 games). The guide booklets aren’t even colored anymore. One cool thing is that they are Netflix streaming ready so if you have a netflix account you can start watching movies instantly (don’t need the disc from netflix).

If anyone thinks the ps3 linux can replace a fast pc, you’re dead wrong. Running Linux it’s slow as hell. Not enough RAM and I/O is heavily crippled. This is not a preferred platform for a desktop.

Well the slim ps3 looks beautifull and its said that it saves energy. Another good thing about it is that it doesnt make any sound while reading the disc or significantly less than fat ps3. Apart from the noise it freezes less which is ps3s major defect not fully fixed yet. As for cons you guys ar aware of them that is removed features.

getting a ps3 to play ps2 games ; yeah way to go!
i’m gonna turn my ps3 into a pc so i could ditch my crappy pc, yay!
oh oh i wish ps4 can play ps2 games too
I wanna make a server, whoooooo ima buy 3 ps3 to make it even more powerful, yay!
i wanna pirate blu ray yay! play games for free! yay! watch movies for free, yay! ripoff toiling companies, yay! ownage! yay!
ima hypocrite yay!

Linux support was removed from the PS3 because of Sony’s partnership with IBM & Toshiba and its own stake in the computer market.

Clustering PS3s to produce GFlop+ clouds was more cost effective than the associated server hardware produced by any of the group.

Hence: PS3s no longer officially support Linux to drive sales of IBM/Sony/Toshiba servers.

My guess and understanding as to why Linux may have been taken out was
1) Many were hacking the RSX and they are becoming successfull.
though it is a way off there have been some to get the RSX to “Dump” the RSX Code.

2) Many of us use Linux not just fro the graphics but for many other uses.
K3b , (softare that can burn ISO files) can be used for an external DVD Burner.
Because of this people can down load “torrents” and burn them. (in no way am I defering to pirated soft ware) for Example one can down load Ubuntu with out tying up there computer.

3) Some people in College want to do both Home work and gaming. the PS3 offered that.

Linux has a but load of Scientific and educational softare that is great for college people and some of that software could be worth thousands of dollars. Like Blender. how ever Linux is weak inthe erea of Video Editing.

4) Sony is noted for “Dumbing Down” there products when a newer product is coming out.

case in point, the origional PS2 had an interface in the console and a HDD. Just befor the PS3 came out the “Slim” (oops I touched it and it broke lol) came out. They removed several features liek the HDD and such and then built in the modems for the internet.

In my beliefe, sony isn’t saving money as it costs money to print up new plans and such. then the cost of faield attempts.

Iin my opinion, sony is either nixing its gaming consoles all to gether or, it is planning to role out something. Maybe a ps4 is coming out who knows, but the fact remains, sony should leav the things as they are and not just Sony, but Microsft as well.
Take Windows 7 for example, all though pesky vista had a video editor they removed that feature from Windows 7 and gave to us a Video editor from HELL. No wonder why people are pirating the stuff, Heck no one can afford what they need because the companies mark up a high cost to everything. Again I am saying I don’t condone the technique but hey, companies need to stop and think … Oh wait, theses comapnies that make millions could care less about us the consumers.

They Pretend to hear us, but they never give us what we want.

The other factor is tht ther countires get certain “Privalages” we don’t get here inthe US like a DVR recording device for the PS3.

I beleive technology should be fair for all.
it should be equal use by any one be it in the US, Canada, Austrailia or Japan.

Hell it would be cheaper for all the gaming industry if they had same rules for everyone then they wouldn’t be wasting money on layers and contracts stating one one country can be allowed to use the DVR feature, while the other will be “Blacklisted” And there are complaints on bothe sides.

The truth is it makes no difference wether we run Games or Not, if a feature is given it should never be changed, it should be fail for all, and there should be no reason it should change.

This bull pucky about removing features to make somehting cheaper is rediculus, they jsut have to make an execuse to cause the un educated say oh that makes sense.

Yes it costs to design and build, but today, Heck have you actually priced the chips them selves?

so inessence it would cost no different to build a machine that has the emotion chip, built in card reader, and such as it would have costed when the first machine came out. Of coarse it would be expensive at first, but now after the technologys been around, it would naturaly go down in cost.

I essence, we are the consumers, we purchase things, but we really no longer own what we have We have a “license” and a license by definition “Is being granted permision to do something that is othwise illegal to do”

So we need a license to use MS but we don’t need a license to run Linux, well sorta they had to create soem kind of wierd license called “Coppy Left” but it basically gives the user the right to do as they wish with the software. taht doesn’t mean one can break the law it jsut means tht the person can go in “Under the Hood” and change what ever it is they want to change with out it being illegal.

So, in essence its not aobut Gaming, Its not about what console is better or worse, it comes down to we the consumers, no longer have a say in what we want, we have lost that freedom . We can complain and write letters untill were blue in the face, but untill we get united and put a hurt on there sales there is nothing that can be done about it.

I yeld my time for the next speaker.

so theres still no way to put linux on ps3 slim??????

Good luck morbid, let us know how you do. And oh yeah, THANKS A FRIGGIN LOT SONY! Now we’ll have to wait for NewEgg to supply CellBE chips & motherboards. Either that or win the lotto so we can afford IBM’s blade servers. (and afford the power bill too!)

u know it sickens me that a game company can do this…i bought a ps3 last year (told that it was backwards compatable when i bought it, even asked specifically) and brought it home….well guess what…it wasn’t….finally get up the money to buy a backwards compatable unit…and guess what…doesn’t play all games…wtf…i’ve given plenty of money along with many other to play these games legally (not mod my ps and d/l an iso to burn) and they still cut the best feature out in order to save money…save money by closing down copyright support and shit like that and give me what i pay for a great system that and i quote (DOES IT ALLLLL)…isn’t that there sales pitch?????

guys i think its time we give darkalex a call about this problem, he did make firmware for new games and psn and probaly even windows os for ps3
he did a dam good job of the psp his hacks makes my psp look like a peice of heaven

well it is possible to install linux on the ps3 system, the ps3 has a certain type of linux which allows the ps3 not to be fucked up, all u need is cfw and a mod chip to sodder ito the console tht will allow you to mod your ps3 in anyway, even install linux on it