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

[phoronix]

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

At last week's Linux Foundation Open-Source Summit / Embedded Linux Conference there was a Sony presentation about their history with open-source/Linux and how since last year they have been "accelerating" their open-source contributions...

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Sony-More-Open-Source-2021

[timofonic]

Gaming? PS6?

[dlq84]

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.

[ernstp]

I think this presentation ignored the Sony Mobile/Sony Ericsson side of the company...

[zdzichu]

I would be happy if my SONY XM4 headphones reported battery status for GNOME to show in power panel. Any chance of that, Sony?

[skeevy420]

Gaming? PS6?

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.

[bug77]

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.

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

[kylew77]

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.

[Pranos]

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

No. It was PS3.

[bug77]

No. It was PS3.

Indeed it was.