'Phat' PS3 Owners Have Until April 15 to Claim $65

[Beowulff83]

https://www.pcmag.com/news/359916/phat-ps3-owners-have-until-april-15-to-claim-65

Quote

If you own one of the so-called "phat" PlayStation models then Sony will pay you $65 as part of its "OtherOS" settlement.

 

A buddy of mine just sent me this,  as i have one of the old systems i am going to fill out the form.  Some of this may be old news but I had no Idea and time is starting to run out.  Appears you have to own the old phat system, provide serial #, say you bought it at an online retailer, know that you could have installed linux on it and it lost value since they put a stop to it and also provide your psn name.

 

Apologies if i put this in the wrong section.

[Crunchy Dragon]

Please edit your post to match Tech News posting guidelines

 

[vanished]

Wow, interesting... I wonder if we'll see the same thing from Nintendo a decade from now after it was discovered you could hack the Switch to run Linux, and then they locked it down?

[Froody129]

Yaaasss. I was so angry when I found out my 300w beast couldn’t use one of the features promised to me.

 

Is this global?

[MkaiL]

2 minutes ago, Froody129 said:

Yaaasss. I was so angry when I found out my 300w beast couldn’t use one of the features promised to me.

 

Is this global?

 

 

Murica only 

[Trixanity]

24 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

Wow, interesting... I wonder if we'll see the same thing from Nintendo a decade from now after it was discovered you could hack the Switch to run Linux, and then they locked it down?

Isn't the difference that PS3 had it as a feature out of the box (an advertised feature even) whereas the Switch requires tampering to achieve the same?

[vanished]

5 minutes ago, Trixanity said:

Isn't the difference that PS3 had it as a feature out of the box (an advertised feature even) whereas the Switch requires tampering to achieve the same?

idk, I always thought the PS thing was also a hack, why else would they have removed it?

[Beowulff83]

Quote

As part of the claim, you must state the PS3 was purchased from an "authorized retailer," although how will they check? You are also required to provide your PSN username, PS3 serial number, and claim you know Linux could be installed or removal of the feature meant the PS3 lost value in your eyes.

I am at the end of the online claim form and it only asked me for name , address, email,  the serial #, psn sign in id and psn online id.  I could not find a section to fill out about how linux worked and such.

[Trixanity]

1 minute ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

idk, I always thought the PS thing was also a hack, why else would they have removed it?

PS3 had the so called "Other OS" option to install Linux from the dashboard. I never tried it so I don't know the details. I can't remember the reason they removed it either. I think it was around the time the first Slim came out. They removed a few things with that release. I'm guessing it was a software maintenance problem (eg so few users it wasn't financially sound to keep people working on it). I mean they did change some hardware stuff with the shrink but I fail to see how it would impact Linux.

[vanished]

8 minutes ago, Trixanity said:

PS3 had the so called "Other OS" option to install Linux from the dashboard. I never tried it so I don't know the details. I can't remember the reason they removed it either. I think it was around the time the first Slim came out. They removed a few things with that release. I'm guessing it was a software maintenance problem (eg so few users it wasn't financially sound to keep people working on it). I mean they did change some hardware stuff with the shrink but I fail to see how it would impact Linux.

They must have realized that allowing people to install a normal fully featured desktop OS basically turns it into a PC which undermines the whole concept of the console.  I mean if Sony wanted to sell PCs like Dell or HP, they would just do that lol

[AshleyAshes]

5 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

They must have realized that allowing people to install a normal fully featured desktop OS basically turns it into a PC which undermines the whole concept of the console.  I mean if Sony wanted to sell PCs like Dell or HP, they would just do that lol

Eh.  You had to build version's of Linux for that exceptionally unique flavor of hardware, also it still worked under the hypervisor and it couldn't even access all the hardware features.  Frankly, the PS3 made a shitty PC.  

But I have a fat PS3 here so I could use $65 USD.

[Drak3]

27 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

idk, I always thought the PS thing was also a hack, why else would they have removed it?

 

22 minutes ago, Trixanity said:

PS3 had the so called "Other OS" option to install Linux from the dashboard. I never tried it so I don't know the details. I can't remember the reason they removed it either. I think it was around the time the first Slim came out. They removed a few things with that release. I'm guessing it was a software maintenance problem (eg so few users it wasn't financially sound to keep people working on it). I mean they did change some hardware stuff with the shrink but I fail to see how it would impact Linux.

It was killed both due to misappropriation by the US military and some research labs, and due to security concerns.

[TopHatProductions115]

"Oh no - I could use my PS3 as the crappiest Linux box on the face of Earth..."

said no one ever.

 

Why is this a problem?

 

EDIT:
I now see the issue - security compromised. With that, I now realize the implications. Perhaps the Linux distro should have been running on an isolated subset of the PS3's hardware, to prevent it accessing unintended components. Furthermore, the security measures included were a bit lacking (since it allowed for pirating). Seems like a rushed feature...

 

BTW, my dad owns one, but I don't think he cares much for it. I'll bring this to his attention anyway  

Edited March 20, 2018 by TopHatProductions115
Now I see the light. Torvalds would be screaming at his monitor if this was still relevant.

[Probably Alex]

1 hour ago, Beowulff83 said:

https://www.pcmag.com/news/359916/phat-ps3-owners-have-until-april-15-to-claim-65

 

A buddy of mine just sent me this,  as i have one of the old systems i am going to fill out the form.  Some of this may be old news but I had no Idea and time is starting to run out.  Appears you have to own the old phat system, provide serial #, say you bought it at an online retailer, know that you could have installed linux on it and it lost value since they put a stop to it and also provide your psn name.

 

Apologies if i put this in the wrong section.

I remember seeing news about this a while back when this settlement was announced. If I recall correctly, I thought one of the stipulations for receiving money was you had to prove you installed another OS onto the system prior to the patch that made doing so impossible.

[Dabombinable]

1 hour ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

Wow, interesting... I wonder if we'll see the same thing from Nintendo a decade from now after it was discovered you could hack the Switch to run Linux, and then they locked it down?

I can run Windows CE on my Xbox-Microsoft did try to lock that kind of thing down....but you just need to avoid the last version of the OG Xbox like the plague.

[Ryujin2003]

The GPU is shot on my PS3, but glad it's sitting in the garage. I just hadn't gotten around to taking out the HDD that I upgraded. Gamestop will only give me 5 bucks for it.

 

This is the second lawsuit with this PS3. The first one was when they had the accounts hacked. I had two accounts so I could do daily trades of paints and such between Gran Turismo games. lol! There was a cheat to increase the inventory count of certain colors, so I'd exploit the crap out of it for my favorite green color.  Anyways, lawsuit for the security breach.

 

Side note, just received two checks from Sirius XM again.. They must really hate these lawyers by now.

[chilicheeseburger]

That feeling when you own a GTX 970, fat PS3 and a Volkswagen Diesel but live in the EU and don't have class action law suits.

[elfensky]

4 hours ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

idk, I always thought the PS thing was also a hack, why else would they have removed it?

They marketed it as being able to do it (Bulldog Linux I think it was called), but removed after people used it to hack the normal OS to run pirated games etc.

[vanished]

2 minutes ago, ElfenSky said:

They marketed it as being able to do it (Bulldog Linux I think it was called), but removed after people used it to hack the normal OS to run pirated games etc.

Ah, that makes sense... well what did they expect!?

[Zodiark1593]

54 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

Ah, that makes sense... well what did they expect!?

Given that the RSX GPU was supposed to be inaccessible to the Linux OS, I'm fairly certain they didn't think pirates would prevail.

[vanished]

1 minute ago, Zodiark1593 said:

Given that the RSX GPU was supposed to be inaccessible to the Linux OS, I'm fairly certain they didn't think pirates would prevail.

Oh. 

 

>supposed

 

wait, well, was it accessible?  Maybe with hax? lol

[Zodiark1593]

10 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

Oh. 

 

>supposed

 

wait, well, was it accessible?  Maybe with hax? lol

It seems to be the case that someone found a way not only to access the RSX, but also disable the Hypervisor and even use it's SPE. Sony obviously felt that the security flaw was severe enough that they were more than willing to eat a Class-Action and the community backlash of OtherOS's removal.

 

I don't think the penalty to be steep enough if a company considers breaking law to be a valid (even if of the desperation-type) option, though that's for another thread.

[vanished]

3 minutes ago, Zodiark1593 said:

It seems to be the case that someone found a way not only to access the RSX, but also disable the Hypervisor and even use it's SPE. Sony obviously felt that the security flaw was severe enough that they were more than willing to eat a Class-Action and the community backlash of OtherOS's removal.

 

I don't think the penalty to be steep enough if a company considers breaking law to be a valid (even if of the desperation-type) option, though that's for another thread.

Yeah, they had a choice to offer this or not, and if this was the intention (to lock down some hardware), they obviously completely missed the point and were never truly on board with the idea in the first place and should not have even offered it.

[Zodiark1593]

1 minute ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

Yeah, they had a choice to offer this or not, and if this was the intention (to lock down some hardware), they obviously completely missed the point and were never truly on board with the idea in the first place and should not have even offered it.

I would be willing to bet IBM had some involvement in the decision to bring OtherOS to PS3, most probably to push the Cell architecture. There were very few Cell systems out there besides the PS3, IBM probably wanted developers to be able to get their hands on them without spending a lot of money on a server. That hypothetical initiative was obviously a failed effort.

[SteveGrabowski0]

6 hours ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

Wow, interesting... I wonder if we'll see the same thing from Nintendo a decade from now after it was discovered you could hack the Switch to run Linux, and then they locked it down?

Sony marketed it as a computer you could put Linux on to in order get favorable tax rates in Europe I think, which is where this comes from.