Some of them did it partly in software, though - and they were less compatible. The European FAT models all worked like that.
Sadly, the fully-backwards compatible models are all ticking timebombs, unless you get the RSX chip replaced with a later model. It’s a problem with the underfill on the chip which resulted in the YLOD, which is basically Sony’s variant of the red ring of death.
I have an early FAT model and it still runs stable, but I’m afraid to use it because I know it will fail eventually if I do. It does look sexy asf though!
444438969 was a great handle. RIP.
Windows 95
Suse Linux
Yoper Linux
Windows XP
Slackware
Windows 10/11
Fedora Linux
“Relapsed” to Windows for a while because I became a graphic designer and running a somewhat current Adobe suite on wine was impossible (it works now).
Slackware has been amazing, but having to built so much stuff from scratch takes too much time nowadays.
And those first Suse years were too rough to keep using it as a daily driver.
lol these are my regular hours (webdev in Germany with a 4-day work week)