Sony will pay millions to eradicate Linux from the PS3

Sony still considers important the PlayStation 3 platform, despite the fact that the PS3 already has several successors. Proof of this is that, after 6 years of litigation over the case of Linux on the PlayStation 3, now Sony is taking desperate measures, and is willing to pay millions of dollars to remove Linux from its PlayStation 3. The reason? The losses caused by the pirates who have managed to take advantage of this PS3 fortress to load pirated games not signed by Sony on the video console.

If you don't remember, I'll jog your memory. Sony launched its brand new PS3 with its powerful STI (Sony Toshiba and IBM) Cell chip, which was based on PowerPC with 8 processing elements that delivered clear performance benefits. In addition to that, it had a Blu-Ray reader and a 512MB RAM, nothing to envy the desktop computers of that time, so much so that Sony was so proud of its creation that it allowed Linux to be installed on the game console to check that your game console could perfectly replace a PC.

Although those of Sony perhaps did not think what this would bring them, since the law made the trap. Many users used this possibility for evil, taking advantage of the fact that distros such as Yellow Dog Linux that supported PPC on that console. With a powerful Linux distro there are few things that cannot be done, and many users found that they could take advantage of it to be able to load pirated unsigned games on the PS3 console without having to buy them, causing great losses to the gaming industry. entertainment.

By eliminating the possibility of installing Linux, Sony could have fallen into misleading advertising after announcing it. But six years later, although she was not found guilty, a agreement with lawyers in an extra-judicial way, in which the Japanese company will pay millions of dollars to be distributed by users affected by the change to pay off the debt and be able to end this nightmare of the PS3. But it appears that the agreement only affects US users at the moment, paying $ 55 to each of the 10 million affected people. You will only need proof of the purchase and the installation of Linux on it and if you do not have this proof, but you allege and sign that you knew about the possibility of installing Linux at the time of purchase, you will receive 9 dollars. The lawyers who earn the most, 2.25 million for their services ...