You may be able to wait and sell your non-slim PS3 (after people finish off-loading for the slim) for a decent price. The slim version does not support installing another OS, so I'm sure there will be people looking to build Linux PS3 clusters interested in your console.

I suspect that this is the very reason that Sony cut the feature. Things like a government open request-for-quote for hundreds of PS3s for a super-computing initiative were excellent hype for Sony's Cell chip, but ultimately cost them money. Time to force these people to buy the (by now mature) product offerings designed for such things and cash in.