ps3 cfw noob needs help please

[cheese!]

i'm slightly new to psp downgrading
but im a complete and utter n00b when it comes to ps3's. i'm getting a 60gb ps3 for xmas but i dont know how to mod it in any way, shape or form
what i need to know desperately is, what's the latest open firmware or custom firmware for ps3?
i haven't upgraded it to any firmware yet and i dont know what firmware it'll be at the moment because i havent opened the box yet

[JLF65]

There is no custom firmware for the PS3. There is the "Game OS" which allows you to do all the normal PS3 stuff, and there is "Other OS" which allows you to run linux (or simple homebrew w/o linux). If your Game OS version is 2.1 or earlier, you can access the 3D hardware of the video processor (the RSX) from Other OS. If it's newer than that, you can't. So if you want to play with hardware 3D on linux, don't update past 2.1. The latest official firmware is 2.5.3 if I remember correctly. If your PS3 firmware is earlier than 2.5, you might consider leaving it - Sony removed the ability to run Java apps from USB memsticks in 2.5.

Yellow Dog linux specifically supports the PS3, but most of the other major distros have some support for it as well. Fedora is a good distro for the PS3 if you're a developer. Fedora 9 and 10 run pretty well on it, and IBM's Cell SDK is specifically written for use on Fedora. Ubuntu is a little more work to get running on the PS3, but can be done. If you want to run closer to the metal than linux, there is a toolchain for doing homebrew that runs under Other OS directly. You'll find that over at ps2dev, but that's not for beginners. If you're not already an accomplished programmer, this is not something to learn on. Stick to linux until you get a bit more experience under the belt.