The lead of the ongoing PS5 Linux project has left the homebrew scene following the wave of AI vibe-coders joining open-source spaces.

Iconic PlayStation hacker and homebrew developer Andy ‘TheFlow0’ Nguyen has abandoned the ongoing PS5 Linux project due to the rise of AI vibe-coders in open-source spaces.

Nguyen, who famously created the first kernel exploit for the PlayStation Vita, has spent over a decade creating exploits and homebrew for PlayStation systems. As one of the leaders behind the ongoing PS5 Linux project, which brought modern PC gaming to the console, the developer was also bringing the full Linux OS experience to Sony’s PS5 with miraculous results.

In an update on social media, the modder announced that they would be “stepping away from the PS5 scene” as well as ending their work on PS5 Linux. “After pouring my heart and months of my life into it, including plans to finish PS5 Pro support and release in 2027, it’s all down the sink,” they said.

Nguyen, like many other homebrew developers recently, explained that they are ending the project due to the rise of AI vibe-coders in open-source spaces. Recently, brilliant PlayStation 3 emulator RPCS3 announced a ban on vibe coding participants due to the fact that vibe-coders in open-source spaces are submitting code that they do not actually understand.

In Nguyen’s words, “the scene used to be a group of highly talented researchers, but now it is just a bunch of noobs using LLMs and writing hacks they don’t even understand”. Additionally, it seems that vibe-coders, or “slop kiddies” as the modder dubbed them, used AI to detect a bug that they were using to crack consoles, and reported it to Sony for a bounty.

“Slop kiddies found the only hypervisor bug left, which I had also found a while ago, and decided to report to Sony,” the modder said on social media. “I asked them to at least wait for GTA 6 to come out so that people would have the opportunity to legally purchase the game and also enjoy linux. They agreed to wait, but not a day passed and they decided to waste it instead.”

With this in mind, it seems that the progress on PS5 Linux for consoles on newer OS versions may have been ruined by the reporting of this bug. This means that the last version of PS5 Linux to be helmed by the modder is the currently available Version 2.5 which supports PS5 Phat and Slim console running 3.00-7.61 firmwares.

  • Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    7·
    6 hours ago

    I think we have two different problems here:

    • One is overload of the domain experts with having to review and integrate huge amounts of low quality “contributions” from people who are de-facto sub-junior in terms of domain expertise. This can be mostly solved by refusing such contributions.
    • People using AI tools to trawl through the homebrew code to find out the mechanism using to go around Sony’s blocking and then snitching it to Sony. As I see it, the only way to solve that is to close source the code, ideally just part of it if they can make sure that even indirectly that mechanism is not leaked (which can be pretty hard if you’re trying to hide that, for example, certain something has to be executed at a specific point during code execution).

    For other code bases which aren’t trying to bypass certain locks, the second problem doesn’t apply, though the first definitelly does to all open source projects with open contributions.

    • slag@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      6·
      2 hours ago

      Problem 1 is also largely solved by ditching GitHub in favor of an environment where you control who is allowed to submit a PR. GitHub is convenient but if you have problems with vibe code volume, choosing to host with a company who heavily incentivizes it and has a commercial interest in doing so is self-defeating. Treat it the same as any other free service that enshittified after several years of market capture on the basis of being free and convenient.

      Problem 2 is the actual reason the project tanked and your take is spot on.