The PS3 used to have a feature Sony would never allow today
The PS3 used to have a feature Sony would never allow today
https://www.makeuseof.com/other-os-and-linux-on-playstation-3/
Publish Date: 2026-03-16 13:00:00
Source Domain: www.makeuseof.com
The console wars of the seventh-generation were something you needed to behold. A former underdog quickly swept the competition under the rug, and the more “powerful” console of the generation struggled to find its footing. As a lifelong PlayStation fan, the PlayStation 3 was somewhat of a hard sell, especially when all of my friends went to Team Xbox for this generation.
But, outside the games that it could play, the PS3 had a special little surprise for eager and interested players. With the introduction of OtherOS, you could fundamentally turn your PlayStation 3 into a functioning Linux computer. It’s wild to think that this was an advertised feature, and it’s sad that they got rid of the capability to make it happen.
The little Linux machine that could
Raghav Sethi/MakeUseOfCredit: Raghav Sethi/MakeUseOf
OtherOS was an incredibly interesting piece of history, especially when it came to the incredibly powerful (at the time) PlayStation 3. This may have very likely been the introduction to a lifelong love of Linux for many users, as the console was capable of installing a variety of different distributions onto its internal hard drive. Users could keep their standard PS3 games running on the game side of things, and a partitioned hard drive would allow users to run Linux or a variety of other OSes on their TV.
Funny enough, it was also used by the United States Air Force Research Laboratory in…
