Vive la resistance: PS3 hacker “Geohot” announces PS3’s “Other OS” option is back!

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand the basic problem that knee jerk reactions cause. In the case of Sony and the axing of the other os option for “fat” PS3’s in the recent 3.21 update, Sony simply took the easy route out. Instead of embracing or merely patching the hole that allowed such a hack to be performed, they banned the option to install Linux outright. Now, the debate as to how useful it was given the PS3’s limited resources isn’t…up for debate.

The simple fact is, if Sony releases a product and boasts of a certain feature for years as one of the main reasons to own a PS3 and then removes it suddenly because someone had a little fun with their property…well then, you can see the problem this causes.

But it’s ok. The dev community will always trump backward thinking corporate brute muscle. As such, Geohot is back at it and as promised, claims to have patched the recent PS3 update that blocked the other OS option thereby bringing it back to the masses. All you need to get the other OS juices flowing once again is a custom generated PUP file that is version 3.15 or older. Sounds easy enough. No hardware hacks needed.

One thing for Geohot to look out for are repercussions. With Sony’s incompetent, knee jerk response initially, seeing a patched version re-allowing Linux will no doubt cause some ill feelings, perhaps even a lawyer or two.

It’s sad really. Sony is effectively pushing away a great deal of tinkers who simply like gadgets and like to play with them. Whatever Sony’s stance is from here on out, they’ve already lost me as a customer for life. If they keep at it I’m sure I’ll have a few more people join my club too…

Release date unknown/TBA

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Joystiq > Engadget > Geohot