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.
Same brother, same. I'm retiring the end of this year. I transitioned from a dev, to contract work, to now a contract code reviewer. I'm sick of it. I get paid to go to random startups or other companies to review code, explain to them why it doesn't work because they don't know WHY it's not working, and when I tell them they thank me for my time and keep doing it. And they all lie about it. They're all using AI for end to end builds but they simply continue to lie that THEY built it until after you consistently prod them they admit "yeah I had Claude build it, I don't know how it works". It's like dealing with a drug addict like you said. You know they're doing it, everyone around them knows, and yet they won't admit it.
So i'm done. Even with the FOSS projects I work on I'm done because now you're getting PRs from randos using omarchy they think they can now contribute to projects and when you review their shit they can't explain what they did, why they did it, or why they're even submitting it.
I'm totally done. I'm done with any type of code. the past 2 years have killed the past 25+ years of passion I had for this stuff. It's not fun anymore and I feel like I wasted half my life.