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from the imagine-a-beowulf-cluster...oh-never-mind! dept.
Liliputing reports
Hacker group fail0verflow recently showed off a PlayStation 4 running Linux[1] at the Console Hacking 2015 conference, marking the first time someone has managed to install a full-blown, desktop operating system on the game console.
Although others have tinkered with the PS4 in the past, including a Brazilian hacker group that used a Raspberry Pi to break into Sony's Orbis operating system, fail0verflow is the first group to successfully install a full version of Linux on the PS4.
Sony's flagship gaming console has had a tumultuous relationship with the DIY community. The third-generation PlayStation came stock with "OtherOS", which was a feature that allowed users to upload Linux to the operating system, which the company eventually removed.
The PS4 has been much less hacker-friendly in the 2 years since the console launched... at least until now. Fail0verflow took advantage of an exploit found by another hacker earlier this year, which allowed them to get around Sony's content protections.
They fiddled with a WebKit bug discovered by the programmer to trick the browser into freeing the processes from the core of the operating system. This hack essentially turns the PS4 into a fully operational PC.
[...] The group noted that some of the differences between the PS4 operating system and a PC are "crazy" and some are "batshit crazy". Oh, and the Marvell Tech engineers that designed the PS4's southbridge chip were "smoking some really good stuff".
[1] The nugget is an embedded video in an iframe, apparently. Link to the video
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 03 2016, @09:03AM
You obviously have some entitlement complex, thinking that whatever product a vendor puts out, they HAVE to facilitate you to do whatever you want with it.
Well, obviously, you do, physically after you bought the machine. But guess what, the vendor have no obligation to make it easy, or even possible, for you to run whatever software (including pirated games or other OS) on the machine.
It is not "bad planning" or "fault" on anyone's part, it is a business decision the vendor chose to rely on various hardware and software feature so that the product can only do some things (like playing official games) and not others (like installing custom software). You being pissed by that decision in no way makes it good or bad. Just don't buy the product if you don't like it.
(Score: 2) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Sunday January 03 2016, @11:23AM
You obviously have some entitlement complex, thinking that whatever product a vendor puts out, they HAVE to facilitate you to do whatever you want with it.
If they REALLY want me to give them my hard earned - yes.
You being pissed by that decision in no way makes it good or bad. Just don't buy the product if you don't like it.
So the customer isn't always right [wikipedia.org]? Even if the manufacturer (not the vendor) decides to change bargain [wikipedia.org] after you paid your money?
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 2) by q.kontinuum on Sunday January 03 2016, @11:55AM
You are discussing two different things here. For new play-stations it is totally legit for the vendor to sell them without an OtherOS feature, and to change the firmware closing holes, as well as it is for you not to buy it.
For PS3 it was an advertised feature, and it is of course NOT legit to remove it after the sale.
Registered IRC nick on chat.soylentnews.org: qkontinuum
(Score: 2) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Sunday January 03 2016, @12:25PM
ou are discussing two different things here. For new play-stations it is totally legit for the vendor to sell them without an OtherOS feature, and to change the firmware closing holes, as well as it is for you not to buy it.
For PS3 it was an advertised feature, and it is of course NOT legit to remove it after the sale.
Agree, two points, I should have made it clearer.
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Sunday January 03 2016, @01:33PM
If you bought a car, and were pleasantly surprised to find that it exceeded your expectations in performance and handling, and got better fuel mileage than advertised, you would think that you got a great bargain.
If you took that car in to the shop for it's first scheduled maintenance, and the mechs screwed with the performance, the handling, and borked the fuel mileage, would you be pissed? Would the auto maker have the right to screw your car up? I don't even specify that they made a dog of your car, they just turned everything DOWN to specs. After driving a sweet ride for a few months, it turns into an average blechhh. Are you going to be happy?
It is, after all, YOUR CAR - you paid for it, and it no longer belongs to Ford, Chrysler, or GM.
Why do so many of you bleat like good little phanbois for the corporations? At least half of you are lying, and the rest have got to be lizard people.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.