Anonymous Will Award $200,000 for Xbox Linux

An anonymous reader writes: "The X-box Linux Project at Sourceforge reports today that an anonymous donor will award nearly a quarter of a million dollars to the individuals responsible for the completion of a two-phased effort to run Linux on the Xbox. One can't help but wonder if this will help or hurt the community. On one hand, it is likely to generate additional interest in the project, on the other, some people may be less inclinded to share their discoveries with money on the line. Then again, getting both Money and Glory sounds pretty good."

Comments

Hacking awards

[Wrexen]

If only I could get $100,000 for breaking into a default Redhat or Win9x install, I'd be a millionaire by now!

The money will probably be needed for legal fees.

[Brett Glass]

If it were merely a volunteer, unpaid effort, Microsoft would most likely look the other way. But money attracts Microsoft's interest, and with a $200K purse to be grabbed, you can bet that the software behemoth will go after the developers with guns a-blazing.

So, Mr. Gilmore (I'd say that the odds are pretty good that he's the anonymous donor) will not only have wasted his money but will have hurt the cause of Linux. That's fine by me, since I (like many others) believe that propagating the GPL and GPLed software is a bad idea. But it'll disappoint even advocates of Linux when it happens.

Re:Linux

[dcstimm]

Hey I had the same problem, its because it needs fullduplex enabled, set it up as a module and do modprobe tulip fullduplex=1 and your problem will be over! also make sure you include New bus configuration (EXPERIMENTAL) because the kingston card requires it. Hope I helped!

Re:legal expenses

[MisterBlister]

The basic goal of the project is to find a simple and completely legal way to run Linux on the Microsoft Xbox.

This is a publicity stunt. There is *no* completely legal way to get Linux to run on the XBOX.

Looks like this is all a hoax, IMO.

Either that or the unstated part of the contest is that you not only need to handle the technical aspects of getting Linux on the XBOX but you also have to work on getting the DMCA repealed, and I'm guessing that's going to take a lot more than $200k...

I'm not trolling, and I don't think getting Linux running on the XBOX is a bad idea, but it just cannot be done without violating the DMCA.

Re:Hmm

[susano_otter]

Regarding your sig: do you really believe that the phrase "one nation, under God", accurately describes the country you're pledging your allegiance to? Or is the pledge for you simply an expression of an ideal state that we may all aspire to, even if it has yet to be established?