Sony Has Begun Accelerating Their Contributions To Open-Source / Linux

[stormcrow]

Wouldn't surprise me long-term. At this point they're running their own custom BSD graphics stack that is essentially what Mesa offers for free. That's just graphics. Add in sound, storage, peripherals, etc that they need which Linux already supports and BSD doesn't, it makes Linux look more and more desirable.

Why double up effort for a closed source solution when an open source solution exists? All that redundant work is a waste of their resources. It would also make porting to Linux, Steam, Stadia, and Android easier since they'd all be sharing the same (or similar) drivers and software.

The license. BSD licenses allow all the DRM they can heap upon their platforms and keep it closed source and harder to circumvent. GPL type licenses are DRM hostile and rightfully so. Has anyone forgotten Sony's gaming division's root kits? Anyone else tried that they'd have ended up in jail.

[Inopia]

There was Linux on PS4 back in the day. Until the day it wasn't anymore.

Well technically there's the unofficial Linux for PS4. With PS4 being so close to a PC with AMD parts they just needed some crafty patches to the kernel and patched AMD Mesa driver.

https://youtu.be/MHjTXYBSRck

[Slartifartblast]

It would be cool if they started using Linux on the playstation, but I doubt it. This is probably more for their "smart" products and mobile phones.

They did sort of then took it away.

The Lord Sony giveth and the Lord Sony taketh away.

[gQuigs]

Has anyone forgotten Sony's gaming division's root kits?

Sony's music CD root kits. It was the only time I had to reinstall to get rid of badware. The penalty was a joke considering the real damage to people's machines.

[gQuigs]

To be fair - Sony has changed - if you have a participating Library you can access their label's collection via https://www.freegalmusic.com/ - including 5 DRM free mp3s every week.

[Michael_S]

The license. BSD licenses allow all the DRM they can heap upon their platforms and keep it closed source and harder to circumvent. GPL type licenses are DRM hostile and rightfully so. Has anyone forgotten Sony's gaming division's root kits? Anyone else tried that they'd have ended up in jail.

I suspect Sony is looking to borrow from Google. Google's got DRM working just fine (just evil, really) on Android and Chromebooks despite the GPL. So Sony realized all their extra work on *BSD platforms isn't necessary, they can use the same workarounds to GPLv2 that Google is using.

[skeevy420]

The license. BSD licenses allow all the DRM they can heap upon their platforms and keep it closed source and harder to circumvent. GPL type licenses are DRM hostile and rightfully so. Has anyone forgotten Sony's gaming division's root kits? Anyone else tried that they'd have ended up in jail.

Yeah, but OpenZFS throws all that right out the window. They can throw all that stuff into the ClosedPS module.

[holunder]

Any chance we could get some upstream FreeBSD support? PS3, PS4, and PS5 all run modified versions of FreeBSD I think but may be wrong version 10 with the PS4 and version 12 with the PS5. Would love to see better gaming support on a *BSD.

They use FreeBSD solely *because* its license doesn’t force them to open up their code. Sony is a *BSD parasite (but BSD folks seem to like it nonetheless).

[brad0]

It would be cool if they started using Linux on the playstation

Not in the slightest.

[MadeUpName]

I was surprised to see that they use Linux in their cameras. Any contributions to getting color management working better in Linux would be much appreciated.