It's Official: Sony Doesn't Support Linux Anymore

I know that many of you guys already heard the last week's rumors (more or less) about Sony dropping the support for Linux-based operating systems, by removing the "Other OS" option from XMB (XrossMediaBar) in its PlayStation 3 gaming console. As announced on the PlayStation official blog, this was supposed to happen with the next firmware update, version 3.21, scheduled for April 1st.

Well, it was definitely not a joke, as, last evening, when I turned on my PlayStation 3 console, the update notification appeared in the right corner. I downloaded the new firmware and rebooted the console to update it. As usual, I was curious to find out what was new in this update (forgetting for a moment that Sony planned to remove support for Linux), and, to my surprise, the update's release notes said very clear that it would remove the "Other OS" function!

Of course, Sony offered the option to not update your PS3 console if you still wanted to have a Linux operating system installed on it (or to back up your data from the Linux partition), but, on the other hand, you will no longer have access to various important features, such as signing into the PlayStation Network! Which very much means that anyone is forced to update to firmware 3.21. Well... what can I say? I followed the instructions: canceled the update, backed up my saved games and formatted the entire hard drive for the PS3 system. I restored my saved games, redownloaded the update and applied it!

To motivate the removal of the "Other OS" function from the PlayStation 3 gaming console, Sony said, "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."

It's a sad day, I know, but, after all, the PlayStation 3 is a gaming console... even if Sony says that, "It Only Does Everything!" Except installing Linux, right? Oh, and I am very curious to know what the guys from YDL have to say about this.

In conclusion... I hate to say this, but we will no longer support our popular tutorials about how to install Ubuntu 7.10 or Yellow Dog Linux 6 on the PlayStation 3 console. They will however remain on our site for the archive's sake. Happy Easter!