I had 3 different PS3s, all junk, blu ray drives failed, Sony does nothing for you. My 1st gen 360 failed after a few years, xbox fixed it for free and gave me one year xbox live for free as well. Sony does not help you beyond the warranty, nor do they offer any compensation.
The PS3 overall is far from being as good as it should be. Considering it had over 1 year to make improvements over the XBOX360. The controller is junk, no removeable battery pack, and it has to be plugged in to charge...and IT DOES NOT TURN ITSELF OFF!!!! If you are using the PS3 Blu ray drive to watch a movie, gotta remember to turn off the controller, or buy their stupid DVD remote.
The OS on PS3 is a joke, it is the same non-user friendly POS that the PSP uses. Granted it is free, as compared to XBOX live, but I can watch netflix via my xbox, stream all the videos/music/photos that are on my computers with one click, very user friendly and intuitive, even my wife can do it
I traded my PS3 for another 360, and have never looked back since.