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.
But are there any practical uses for an Xbox running Linux? Haven't you defeated the primary purpose of the Xbox: playing games?
I've heard people say that they could use it as a cheap webserver for a massive farm of servers, but this doesn't make much sense when you realize that you can build a better machine for just a little more money and a *lot* less effort. I've also heard people say that it could be used as a part of a rendering farm, but these machines have only a lowly (crippled) celeron processor in them and their graphics hardware isn't meant to do non-realtime rendering.
So what's the deal here?
Friends don't let friends use multiple inheritance.
I wonder if THAT could run, oh nevermind. It looks nothing like a penguin anyway.
Seriously folks, do we need to give more money to the red devil?
Just the other day I was strolling around in fry's. I had just bought some KVM cables and I needed a gender changer when I saw the neatest thing I seen in a while. I don't remember the name but i'll try and be as detailed as possible...
There was this tiny mobo at fry's with a 800mhz CPU soldered on board. The thing couldn't have been bigger than a mousepad. It had video out, firewire, usb, bunch of other stuff on it.
The price?
Only $129!
I know a lot of people want to use the xbox as a cheap linux station, but seriously folks, everytime an xbox is purchased it goes back to satan himself.
Now even though this lil mobo/cpu thingy didn't have the latest nvidia chip, I could slap up to 2 pc100 dimms in there. It's a helluva lot smaller than an xbox. If I wanted a pretty injected plastic moulded case I could walk over to the next isle and grab a project box. (I was thinkin tap plastic acrylics)
So which would you rather have?
xbox (and you're bills bitch)+70 bucks for a mod chip
129 cpu mobo combo and some spare parts you got layin around the garage.
Actually, every purchase of the Xbox sends Microsofts money to the hardware vendors. Sony and Nintendo see this and dropped their prices (still making $$ on the hardware) so MS would lose more. The hardware in the Xbox is expensive as game consoles go and a bunch of that money is going to Nvidia.
;)
So, Microsoft loses money on each sale of the hardware and it's been estimated that you'd have to purchase something like 10 or 15 game titles for them to break even.
Now you see why this is "interesting"? It's a hit against Bill Gates' wallet and there's a pretty cool graphics system onboard. All in a box that SCREAMS FOR THE X-WINDOW SYSTEM.
LoB
"Anyone who stands out in the middle of a road looks like roadkill to me." --Linus
I've seen people quote this "fact" all over slashdot. But has there been any hard facts? How do we know this isn't some kind of astroturf campaign to make anti-ms types think it's ok to purchase an xbox? I'd love to see someone who really knows about hardware manufacturing to do a cost rundown fo the xbox, giving conservative and liberal estimates of how much they think it costs MS to maufacture and why.
-- Knowledge shared is power lost. -- Aleister Crowley
I think he was thinking of CP/M.
Lots of people here are saying Why bother wasting your time porting Linux to the Xbox, you can create a better cheaping Linux platform using, blah, blah, blah... 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.
The difference between Canada and the USA is that in Canada healthcare is a right and gun ownership is a privilege.
Ok, so let's say you are able to garner enough support to go on a massive 'Let's screw Microsoft!' binge and purchase as much as 20,000 Xboxes.
$4,000,000 - $6,000,000 = -$2,000,000
Two problems I see. And, while I'm not trying to be an ass, it'll certainly seem like it.
1.) Microsoft isn't the only one that'll see these sales figures. Game companies will too. They'll see a rise in demand and want to produce more titles for it (some exclusive, no doubt) therefore making Xbox more enticing to gamers. The increased production as a result of your buying spree might actually be able to be sold and you may unintentionally help Microsoft's plight in the gaming market.
2.) $2,000,000 isn't a lot of money to Microsoft. They probably don't even care that it's gone. But $2,000,000 in donations to open source projects would be a great thing. I realize that's not something that everyone is interested in, but if even half the people donated half that money to something more worthwhile than maliciously screwing Microsoft, you'd be doing a lot more net good than apparent net harm to Microsoft.
Just a thought. Could be wrong.
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.
Buying Xboxes allows Microsoft to recoup some of its operating losses.
Imagine it costs $210 to make an Xbox these days. So Microsoft loses about $10 per Xbox.
"Great!," you say, "we can just buy 100,000 Xboxes and put MS down $1 million!"
It's a brilliant idea, because 100,000 Xboxes will cost you around $20,000,000 (minus applicable sales taxes). Microsoft paid $21,000,000 to make them, so this way MS loses $1 million and we've screwed Microsoft, right?
Well, imagine if you hadn't bought those 100,000 Xboxes. Then, not only would it have cost Microsoft $21,000,000 to produce them, but there is an added bonus that they don't make back $20,000,000; this sets them at a loss of $21 million, a much higher expense than just a measely $1 mil.
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'. ;)