The next system software update for the PlayStation 3 (PS3) system will be released on April 1, 2010 (JST), and will disable the “Install Other OS” feature that was available on the PS3 systems prior to the current slimmer models, launched in September 2009. This feature enabled users to install an operating system, but due to security concerns, Sony Computer Entertainment will remove the functionality through the 3.21 system software update.
In addition, disabling the “Other OS” feature will help ensure that PS3 owners will continue to have access to the broad range of gaming and entertainment content from SCE and its content partners on a more secure system.
Consumers and organizations that currently use the “Other OS” feature can choose not to upgrade their PS3 systems, although the following features will no longer be available;
- Ability to sign in to PlayStation Network and use network features that require signing in to PlayStation Network, such as online features of PS3 games and chat
- Playback of PS3 software titles or Blu-ray Disc videos that require PS3 system software version 3.21 or later
- Playback of copyright-protected videos that are stored on a media server (when DTCP-IP is enabled under Settings)
- Use of new features and improvements that are available on PS3 system software 3.21 or later
For those PS3 users who are currently using the “Other OS” feature but choose to install the system software update, to avoid data loss they first need to back-up any data stored within the hard drive partition used by the “Other OS,” as they will not be able to access that data following the update.
Additional information about PS3 firmware updates, including v3.21 (once it becomes available), can be found here:
http://us.playstation.com/support/systemupdates/ps3/index.htm
PS3 owners who have further questions should contact Consumer Services:
http://us.playstation.com/support/ask/
800-345-7669 (800-345-SONY)
It is funny how trolls challenge and have nothing else to say when i respond.
Anyone who says im done with Sony for ditching Linux is most likely a troll xbot or hacker.
Why the >>>> would you quit playing your games because you cant run linux cmon ..
I am really upset,
Sony WTF? all you do is taking away features,
and about people who paid 800$? What the hell they paid for?
From now on I follow one rule:
Never buy Expensive Sony Product until price goes down otherwise you lose money,and feel yourself like a fool…
Sony if you will do like this not even asking permission of consumers,
then for sure I wont support you with my money and will switch to X360.
And also will happy to say “Jakudza go home to your stupid Japan”.
People why we so stupid? why we dont support our American manufacturer of Xbox360?
Why we support with our wallet foreign japanese who does whatever he wants
even dont asking us? Thats completely not right.
Americans should support American manufacturers and be proud of that.
While I don’t use this feature much (or the PS3 much in general), it was one of the main reasons I purchased the device early on. I’m astonished Sony would force this on its customers. Might be time to put the device up on Craigslist.
I’ll keep this in mind when considering future Sony products.
Keep up the mediocre work, Sony!
1 day:horses will eat each other
2 day:disabling the “Other OS” feature
3 day:dead will stand up from the grave
@ 2103 you are sadly mistaken there was never any pointing to the other os on sonys part gaming websites and the public touted it but sony never has.as far as the hacker point Linux is a weakness that sony ultimately has no control over ive heard it is very hard/technical and hardware/software based but linux is a big part of the foot in.Also I posted that for those who legitamately use linux and bought ps3 as a gaming rig that sux.
too many xbots here lying to people, Linux was never advertised as a feature, nor does it have rsx support.
TRiKkey, who said anything about not playing games? You assume just because we are against this we are for the xbox ? Its not trolling, its not supporting xbox, and its darn sure not giving up games to be upset about this.
Its giving up Sony. Last I checked, Sony wasn’t the only game provider. Nor is Nintendo, or MS. There are games pretty much on any platform of any device these days.
What I don’t understand is how you seem to be ok with this, even defending it. If ANY single person used this feature, that would be enough to feel sick about this. This whole thing just isn’t right. No justification makes it right. Its not necessary, its just Sony pulling a power play and proving that in the end they have control. We don’t have to do what they say, I can choose to not buy anymore. Just like they Choose to remove a feature.
Those are *my* rights.
I don’t care what their TOC or any legal crap says… lawsuits are gonna fly ( I would gladly join any class action for those considering)… they can’t just remove one of the top 3 or 4 features they have fior the console, and they know it, they have been advertising it amongst the top bullet points of description and specifications for years (and continue to do so, check their site) … With the advent of dlc and itnernet updating products, their needs to b e better restrictions on what a company can remove from a product after its release, advertisement, and more importantly, it purchase by the consumer … people PAID for this feature, factored it into their decision, and have a right to keep it … afterall they cant just give back their ps3 now for purchase price and use the money to buy another system.
They better think twice.
… and for those of you saying “blame the hackers”. No, I blame Sony. I paid for a device that supported the installation of 3rd party operating systems. I installed an early version of yellowdog the first week after purchasing the OS.
It’s Sony’s responsibility to insure their products cannot be exploited and are patched appropriately (without the removal of features).
@TRIKkey
I declare myself anti-Microsoft in any way, shape and form and I still say this is crap what Sony did.
How do people use it? Personally I used it to learn Cell programming among other stuff but the most important one is that. Some people like myself actually use this feature and we’re genuinely pissed off that it is getting discontinued. Even more so when Sony lied to us about supporting it further.
@2103 TRiKkey –
Seriously? Either you are a 14 year old who doesn’t pay for the majority of the stuff in his/her life yet… or you are just a fanboy who would do anything for Sony.
Any company who has the gall to take away a feature that was relatively major selling point will not think twice about screwing their customers over on future matters. People who say they are going to ditch Sony are the ones who have half a brain, and want to stand up for themselves rather than roll over and take whatever Sony feels like dishing out to them.
2.010! Yeah. That was a day day for Playstation Nation. Truly.
Sony… be prepare because angry voices are now echoing through every one of you.
You better come up with something unique, but very educational explanation as to why you did that in first place…
Good riddance…
2114.* Sorry.
This is really disappointing that they are removing this but then again it doesnt surprise me considering Sony is doing a really poor job supporting their products. Look at the GO they dont even have any kind of agreement with the devs to push PSN support. Games like Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep and God Eater will completely skip the GO.
Sony if you plan on actually controlling the Hardware sale war with both PSP and PS3 you really need to pull up your socks and do some spectacular things to compensate for what you are removing. Maybe actually listen to what your customers want instead of ignoring them and listening to hackers.
and for those of you saying “blame the Sony”. No, I blame the hackers
people can try and short change those of us who are complaining.
great YOU dont use it. YOU dont think its worthwhile great.
but it was a hyped feature of the launch systems. those of us
who spent $600 (if you spent more, that is your fault) for features
that we were told were not going to be removed when a new model that shipped without that feature have the right to POed.
We we early adopters who went against the grain in this gen and were loyal to sony, only to be slapped in the face. we paid $200-$300 extra dollars for featurs that are being taken away and we are being left with systems that should have been sold for $300.
to me. it is as bad as them taking BC from launch units
nd for those who say there havnt been any
advertisments and promotions for the feature….
how about the one that is still on the Playstation website?
http://www.playstation.com/ps3-openplatform/index.html
WILL YOU ALL PLEASE SHUT THE HELL UP! flippin crybabies and i bet half of you dont even use the ‘other OS’ feature. since the three or four years into the ps3 life it has not been hacked until now and because someone has hacked it you harp on sony for taking the necessary steps in preventing fraud games. you people are stupid.
relatively major selling point talk about reaching for straws jesus christ use your head i guess the kz2 footage was about linux.im much older than 14 and was a sega fanboy was saving my money for a saturn ended up buying a psx because games GAMES were far superior.@mosetc gtfo then acting like this is a huge deal for a gamer is ludicrous I will buy your ps3 and I support my fam of 4 on my income as of this moment
@2086: No one ever said point blank that this was or wasn’t a joke.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it once more, with feeling, for sure:
I’ve never had occasion to install Linux on my PS3, but I’ll admit, as a geek, I’ve been tempted to try.
As someone who uses the PS3 as a game system and (occasionally) a movie machine, though, the loss of PS3 Linux isn’t going to hit me as badly as 90% of the folks here (and at this point, doesn’t matter whether they’re trolls or not), but the manner of, and the justification for said loss is just plain BS; it’s all too vague.
When you’re making news on major IT media for what your console won’t be doing, but has been doing without hesitation for four years, and you use fuzzy logic to explain why…I can’t find an exact word for it, but it’s dumb, and it’s leaving a seriously rotten taste in the mouths of those who follow the story.
@ 2114 you need to take your stupidity on out of here i was 14 in a past life.respect your elders/superiors
When Sony said that they thought $400 was fair and would not even consider dropping that cost for a long time, I bought a PS3. Immediately, they dropped the price. They lied.
When we were promised backward compatibility, they took that away, too.
When a month ago we were told that the Other OS wasn’t going anywhere, we all thought, “Well, duh. We paid for that. Of course it’s not going anywhere. They would be stupid to insult us like that.”…
Well, they lied again. We’ve had backward compatibility and the Other OS taken away for the privilege of annoying our Facebook friends every time we switch games. What an amazing upgrade.
It has finally made it to the point where Sony needs to be punished. I mean, literally, whoever is making these decisions should be brought out to the back of Sony HQ and whacked with a wooden paddle. It’s very kind of you to call all of your customers thieves, because that’s really what you’re trying to say here. THIS ISN’T THE PRODUCT I PAID FOR.
@ 2119 TRiKkey –
Thank you for proving my point. Not only are you a fanboy, but you also seem to have a low level of education.
And yes, it was a relatively major selling point. this was the first time that a console manufacturer had enabled a feature like this, and I know that it made a fair share of buyers consider purchasing a PS3 when they would have otherwise ignored it.
It doesn’t really matter though. Your fanboy mentality will not let you see any dissenting view points.
Not one gamer is even phased by this get a life fools.@2123 i missed the articleassumption that the os option was out link?Bc was never advertised.Sony take the troll food away its getting ugly/slow in here
the more i think about this act by SONY, the more mad i get..
i REALLY WAS a diehard Sony fanboy when i bought my launch PS3 phat for $600 FREAKIN dollars..
and through the 3/4 years it’s been out SONY has simply lost my respect..
2080
“However if you choose to give up playing your games online and future games not being compatible then you didnt buy it as a gaming rig.Which is what it is.”
Jeez, you’re dense! Some of us bought it with more than one use in mind.
2097
“None of those things are ever going to be removed so your question is purely rhetorical/watif none of that is going to happen just like these mindless fools saying what if they remove bc or bluray playback its stupid”
They stated recently, very clearly in fact, that they wouldn’t take away the Other OS feature. They lied (assuming this is not all an elaborate April Fools Day stunt). What’s to make me believe they won’t remove other features. I could see them take away BC in the name of some vague notion about innovation, and focusing on the future (hell, maybe even DVD playback). I wouldn’t have believed it before, but now, I’m not so sure
i wonder if we’ve had voice chat by now if sony didn’t focus their attention on this
->> TRiKkey:
Believe it or not some of us are actually educated consumers. When the PS3 was launched I read the entire box, I researched online, I watched Tv Shows about it, I read magazines, I looked on websites…so YES I did know about the “other OS” option!
Are you a SONY Tool? I love their machines I’ve had PS1,PS2,& PS3’s never owned an xbox. Don’t you get the principle of right & wrong?
It’s as simple as THIS:
I bought something. It said it would do something & now it won’t = wrong.
@ 2124 Show me a link where sony is touting its linux support.That was meant to be a selling point to consumers.
hey TRRK its one of the few standout different features between the consoles, especially ps3 vs 360, the major contenders for the same audience… removing one of the major differences, is akin to stealing from everyone who factored that into their decision to buy.
Get it? Doesnt matter if you or your friends use it, I use it, and I paid a hefty price to, so I expect them to not have the right, let alone the brass balls, to try to take it away from me.
Here’s a big screw u Sony from me & all the other linux PS3 users out there!
The two reasons I purchased an original PS3 was for the BC & Linux abilities. I really hope someone sues them for this.
FW updates continue to kill peoples consoles, I’ve had to pay three times now to have it repaired.
How the hell can you sell something then take away its abilities?
It’s like selling a car & then removing the dashboard.
Someone needs to start regulating this sort of thing so these big companies stop screwing over their customers.
If you don’t update you can’t use any online features which are also a part of what the PS3 is supposed to do.
Really, really sick of this continuing gabage!
* Would love to have used much stronger words in this post!!!
@2120
Agreed, in terms Sony Japan should understand: Kono ketsudan ahorashii desu. This decision is stupid/ridiculous.
Are you a MICROSOFT Tool.
//I love their machines I’ve had PS1,PS2,& PS3’s never owned an xbox. Don’t you get the principle of right & wrong? \\LOLOLO
@Blade … haha, good analogy with buying a car and then them taking out the dashboard… a gps might have been more apt, but hte point remains the same, you cant take a componnent out of the sold item, especially when its one of the largest differentiating factors between people’s options … its tantamount to theft, fraud, and false advertising.
@2014 Funny, support an American manufacturer? Every single piece inside a Xbox 360 is either made in China or Taiwan. Hell MS doesn’t even press the game discs in America anymore they do it in Mexico. In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if Sony employed more US workers then Microsoft.
It sucks that Sony is doing this and I wouldn’t mind a class action lawsuit to stop them from removing features in the future but the people threatening to sell their PS3 and buy a Xbox 360 because Sony is anti-consumer cracks me up. You can not get more anti-consumer then Microsoft’s 360. Pay to play your own games online(non-gold members, well you get to pay full price for half a game). Pay 3x retail price for a hard drive. Pay for a rechargeable battery pack and cable, pay to get demo’s on time(non-gold members have to wait a week), pay to stream movies via netflix(not available to non-gold members), pay to change your gamertag($15 I believe). I know most of the people saying this are full of BS. But man the people who are serious are in for a rude awakening.
I have to say that I am truly disappointed.
I, as many others like me, will now have three options:
1) Give up a hobby project (writing a light-weight kernel for the ps3, which is the only non x86 architecture at home) to be able to continue using my ps3 to play sony exclusives.
2) Give up all sony exclusives, trophies, etc to be able to work on my project. (And I would still likely play most games on the 360 as I currently do.)
3) Dish up another $300 for the rare gem that isn’t cross platform. My PS3 collection of games is barely a sliver compared to that of my 360 collection.
I seriously, honestly, only purchased the ps3 because I was able to try and write a kernel for a powerpc without ever having to even think about writing drivers for different kinds of harddisks, network cards, or graphics cards for that matter! It’s honestly disappointing to see Sony make me choose between ambitious hobbies and the rare exclusive gems.
Why even pretend for three years that you wanted to be an open platform. The PS3 should be completely open (gfx chip and all), but the companies, or individuals, who complete the development cycle and want to sell could retroactively pay for publishing rights.
@2122 GreatTeacherDebo
I agree with you completely!
I am a Sony loyal since the PS1 release in North America and am ready to wash my hands with this company.
(not because im butthurt over losing linux, but for these kinds of business practices… forgive me for wanting to actually own the full use of the hardware i payed for)
*****Sony is one of the, if not the biggest, abusers of DRM in the world.*****
All I’m really left with is the thought that firmware 3.21 better deliver something really nice like X-game chat or vastly improved performance or something, or else Sony does need to be punished, severely and I will be playing all my upcoming titles on PC.
Its pretty funny to read through this forum.
All the posts that are against Sony seem to use mostly proper grammar and spelling… The ones that are for Sony are all written with horrible grammar and “txt spk”.
At all of u tards i knew full well all of the PS3 capabilities and most likely owned mine before any of you.None of u read on the box or in any sony sales advertisement buy ps3 it can run linux or anything resembling that.Dont question my intelligence or level of education.@@@@2130 my whole point is it is a gaming RIG GAMING RIG that means it is designed to play games savvy??
Yes previously you could string them together as a supercomputer and you still can if you dont get the optional update.
Intelligent responses would be nice from now on
Sorry that was suppose to be @2104.
OMG, I can’t believe no one saw it, this was announced by Patrick Seybold. Shouldn’t this be announced by Eric Lempel? https://blog.playstation.com/author/elempel/
You have all been trolled!
Patrick, you sir, win.
Give us the Zinc browser or some kind of FREE legit streaming video soon so people will want to update to get new features and stop complaining!
@ 2132 nobody bought a ps3 who is a gamer because they could run linux.
blog.us.playstation is like huge xbox owners party))
@2140
That’s too funny! considering what’s right below your post!
smear campaign at its finest tis a damn joke
this is completely ridiculous, i will not be installing this update, i absolutely refuse to lose my linux. ive had Xubuntu installed since i got my ps3, and i dont intend on losing it anytime soon. they say its an optional update, and linux removal wont be included in any future updates, so ill just hold off on updating until the next time. this better be an april fools joke or im taking my ps3 to sony headquarters and setting it on fire in their front yard….
proper grammar on a blog really?Not here to show my knowledge of grammar.Attacking someone for not putting in the apostrophe etc is saying you have no rebuttal other than saying lol no comma what a joke.
@TRRK here’s your examples:
us . playstation . com / support / answer / index . htm ? a _ id = 469
and
playstation.com / ps3 – openplatform / index . html
(remove the spaces)
I know I am feeding the trolls with every strike.Hopefully others reading this will come away with some real knowledge.That is my dream
i think part of trikkey’s confusion is that he can’t see all the links being posted cause posts with links in them have to be approved by moderators.