It seems the age of humdrum, crippled browsers on consoles might finally be coming to an end! Though the details are very slim, with the only source being an unnamed insider very close to Sony, it is exciting news indeed if it turns out to true.
Games consoles have always had feeble browser offerings, with PS3's default browser generally considered one of the worst and most unreliable. Porting Firefox to the PS3 would make a lot of sense, especially if Sony intend to inroads against the competing XBox Live service. Or perhaps they need a proper web browser for their newly-announced iTunes-killer...?
Obviously this is very much a rumour, but it would make a lot of sense -- and it will probably appear quite soon, considering how hard Sony are pushing for a larger slice of the console market at the moment.
I wonder if Flash and the ability to stream videos from sites like YouTube will be included....
http://www.downloadsquad.com/2009/11/20/proper-web-browsing-on-a-console-firefox-coming-to-the-sony-ps3/
Playstation Insider has reported that Sony may be planning a port of Mozilla's Firefox for the Playstation 3 console.
"We recently received a tip from a source very close to Sony who says that they have been in talks with Mozilla lately about possibly porting Firefox over to the PS3," wrote Dustin Rudzinski.
"That said, our source made sure to point out that they were unsure if any deal had actually been reached at this point, but it is great news none the less considering the complaints Sony has been getting about the lack of reliability with their current built in PS3 web browser."
It should be noted that the PS3 is already capable of running Linux, although Sony disabled the option of running other operating systems on the Slim version of its console.
Sony spokesperson John Koller told Ars Technia that support for Linux had been stripped away for a "couple" of reasons.
"We felt we wanted to move forward with the OS we have now. If anyone wants to use previous models and change the OS, they can do so," explained Koller. "We wanted to standardize our OS."
http://www.tgdaily.com/games-and-entertainment-features/44734-rumor-sony-planning-firefox-ps3-port
