Slashdot Mirror
Linux on Xbox One Step Closer?
RpiMatty1 writes: "Apparently the Linux Kernel has been booted on the Xbox. No mention of it on the Xbox-Linux Home page yet. Here is another posting of the same messages at Xboxhacker.net." I wonder if the recent security code change rules this particular development out for Xboxes purchased in the near future.
This is a great step forward! Sure Linux doesn't seem practical (but I still think it's cool for the "look what i did" factor) but this is great news for the Xbox Emulation scene. I mod over at www.dcemulation.com and we have tons of cool things, including a PSX emu in progress, running on the DC.
-=Errors always defy logic.=-
I wonder if THAT could run, oh nevermind. It looks nothing like a penguin anyway.
Well, we could always play freeciv on an xbox.
But then again, xbox stuff is prettier, and we all know we play games 'cus they're prettier.
Another reason might be this, which I suppose could be viewed as a game as well.
So we want linux on the xbox to play games?
. This sig unintentionally left blank. I meant to put something here, but I'm busy.
But the Xbox is really a trial run for Palladium, i.e. an M$ only hardware platform designed to only run software authorized by the Bill himself. This is where we are heading folks, so any R&D done now will be valuble when the real thing comes along.
This is also a very good reason NOT to publish and make widely known successful hack attempts. The more MS believes that their current generation of protection is adequate, the less likely they'll devote more time and research into making a system that makes hacking that much harder.
With the availability of some good PSX emulators for Linux, this could result in PSX games running on the Xbox, which would be pretty damn cool.
Also, buying them increases their market share --> more "Only on X-box" games --> more people buy X-boxes --> MS eventuallly wins the market.
I believe the break-even rate was 3-4 titles per person, it's certainly not 10-15. Even so, MS makes tens of billions in profit each year - the billion or so they're losing on the X-box is a pretty good long-term investment for them.
Not to mention that those numbers (number of titles to breakeven) is just a more or less qualified guess... meaning that when adding the DVD-things (that most people will buy) it might be breakeven for Microsoft, add an extra control and/or some memory and M$ is making a profit...
If that's the case then you're giving money to M$ at the same time that you're helping them cut costs by them having one less unit to store... not to mention them getting better deals/more gamedevelopers when they can show that they own a greater part of the market... and once you've got the unit some of you will start buying a lot of games... after all, if you can buy a unit just to "hurt" M$ you wouldn't exactly go broke if you buy a game or two......
What next?! Take M$ out of the OS market by buying their products faster than they can make them...????!
Hmmm. I wonder what he would have found if Van had used dd to read the first hundred sectors?
Linux on an XBox. The question begs to be asked: Why? I asked this when there was so much hullaballoo over booting linux on a dreamcast, and all I got for a reply was "don't tell me how to use my dreamcast!!".
So. Why so much noise over Linux on an XBox? Why could a Slashdotter buy an XBox anyway? You all hate MS so much. And then devote hours and hours into getting Linux to run on it? Yeah, I suppose you all get some kind of sick thrill from it, from "perverting" an MS product, but geez... isn't this sort of like having sex with your sister?
Let's go with something outrageous, and assume that Microsoft loses $200 a box. A million people go out and buy the Xbox, Microsoft increases production to meet this new demand, and loses $200 million. Microsoft already expects to lose _billions_ on the Xbox the first few years and _doesn't care_!
They don't even care if you don't buy any games for it. Why not? A week after this, all of the sudden newspapers and websites and tv stations are talking about the huge surge in Xbox demand, far surpassing Gamecube. Developers sit up and take note and start making more Xbox games. There are more games for those who buy them to spend money on, giving Microsoft money, the greater number of games and the percieved increase in popularity will encourage more people to buy Xboxes to play games on, more money for Microsoft.
Do you think most people will notice or care that some of the people with Xboxes aren't playing games on them? Especially when Microsoft is spending millions on advertising boasting about the increased sales and "popularity"? Do you really give that much credit to the intelligence of the average consumer or media conglomerate?
Every article I've seen about the Xbox the last few months has been talking about their dismal sales, with the possiblity of an increase down the road. The PR value of every Xbox bought is currently worth far more to Microsoft than any money they are losing on the system! And do you think Microsoft isn't paying attention to the people trying to port Linux to the system and adjusting their accounting appropriatly? They're probably laughing at everyone's naievety right now.
Probably the only reason Microsoft isn't giving XBox away is a: the laws against product dumping, and b: the marketing perception that if the price is being slashed then it must not be any good. How many people rush out to buy a game that ends up in the bargain bin the week after it's released?
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
That translates roughly to 'the sort of geek whom people turn to, to ask how to do stuff'...
Microsoft is less concerned with selling games to tweaks than with having people see tweaks USING XBoxes for various purposes, establishing the desirability of the hardware- a sort of 'gee, if Tweak here runs a web server off his XBox, I bet it would be great and reliable for playing my games!' angle they're trying to work.
That is why they have people actively working Slashdot, both posting and moderating. They also have supporters they're not directly paying (more like cheerleaders), but some of the 'stick it to them' posts are in fact Microsoft people, on the clock and working that angle to scare up sales.
Now, mod me 'flamebait'. ;)