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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: 2) by julian on Monday January 04 2016, @12:13AM
Sony started to break even on hardware sales in 2013. They probably make a profit per unit now, as manufacturing costs decrease over time. Also, there are simply not enough people interested in hacking their hardware for it to make much of a difference either way--and many of them will also buy games.
(Score: 2) by Hairyfeet on Monday January 04 2016, @06:56AM
Citation please? Because the PS3 AFAIK has NEVER broke even (thanks to the cell processor, which was a turkey that was never really used anywhere else) and the PS4 was released in Nov 2013 so I seriously doubt it was profitable at launch, or even breaking even, as the only company I know of that did that with consoles at release was Nintendo before the Wii U.
Also I kinda doubt that with 2 companies competing over the same APU which is being manufactured by a fabless company (which means they really have no control on production or output) that they are getting the economies of scale required to drop the price low enough for it to be making money OOTB, especially with the cost of GDDR-5 and the rest of the BOM factored in.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.