missile said:
Quite the opposite is true.
patsu was talking about all the dollars lost due to PS3Linux, i.e. that
PS3Linux is not a sustainable business and as such not worth to be considered
any longer.
It's not just that it isn't a sustainable business, but that there's nothing there that really interests Sony. You mentioned how it could be a desktop replacement, but Linux hasn't really caught on in that regard in the PC space. Why would it be any different on the arcane, limited PS3? Is Sony even in the business of working on desktop replacements?
Which isn't even addressing patsu's point that Sony loses money on these machines. If you're not buying games (and potentially blu-rays) for your PS3, Sony doesn't really want your business. Is the subset of gamers that are looking for a desktop replacement big enough to warrant further investment in OtherOS?
Even the angle of ostensibly serving as a platform for coders to train with Cell may not make sense anymore -- for all we know, Sony might go in a completely different direction with PS4. (Dropping OtherOS doesn't speak wonders for Sony's commitment to Cell.)
If we would always need a sustainable business running, then most of
the good things, like Linux, wouldn't exists in the first place.
Linux started as a grassroots sort of thing; when it reached sufficient mass, corporations decided it was worth investing money into. That's not really the case here. Here Sony is investing money in something that costs them money today, may cause them significant trouble in the future -- all on the promise that one day something that is both good and interesting to them might come out of the community.
Once cannot
expect that PS3Linux brings heaven down to earth just after three years. A
proper scene needs about 5 - 10 years to establish itself on a new hardware /
architecture.
But is Sony interested in PS3Linux bringing heaven down to earth? They don't make money off it. There's no reason to believe that they'd ever make money off it.