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XBOX Media Player 2.0
smashr writes "If you can't afford the new Windows XP Media Center edition, why not grab yourself a modded XBOX, and check out the XBOX Media Player 2.0. The official site has some screen shots and previews. I am sure Gates will be real upset about this one. Somehow $300 for an x-box setup is cheaper than the $2000 XP boxes."
While a modded XBOX seems like a cool inexpensive PC, I feel that it's more trouble than it's worth.
If Billy G. does not want you to mod his XBOX, he will continually roll out new schemes and plans to try and foil you. Sounds like just a big pain to me. For the same money, you could go buy one of those Walmart/Lindows PC's and load a copy of Mandrake or Redhat on it to achieve a low cost useful PC.
Just my 2 cents.
I'd rather be a conservative nutjob than a liberal with no nuts and no job.
I am sure Gates will be real upset about this one.
I understand that because this is Slashdot, we all feel a need to assume the worst about Bill. However, this program has been out for over six months, and not a single word has come from Microsoft.
For an article about an earlier release of XBMP, check here.
Why? The more they sell, the more they produce, they cheaper they produce 'em, and the closer they get to turning a profit on every piece of hardware.
The more consoles they can show sold, the more they can entice developers, and the more software they can make a royalty on.
Media Player or Linux or no, 99.9% of xbox owners eventually want to buy or rent a game.
If you really want to screw Gates, build yourself a 300$ PC, and quit it with this "I'm stickin it to the man" crap.
BTW, Xbox media player is developed illegally with the leaked XBOX SDK from MicroSoft. Thanks for the warez tip, though. Any idea when Doom III final going to hit my local fserves?
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
They are not "required to by the GPL".
What they are REQUIRED to do is have a license to re-distribute the work of another.. and one way they can do that is by following the GPL.
As they didn't do that; they were guilty of copyright infringement, not "violating the GPL".
Furthermore, the only poeple who can really force someone to do something is the COPYRIGHT HOLDER whose rights are being infringed upon.
The community really doesn't have a right to scream "give us the source".. only the copyright holders do.
OMFG, this guy simply pasted verbatim an AC post before it that was smacked down to -1, redundant. please mod this homosexual down.
Except for the fact that they probably put a good deal of work into modifying Windows XP for HP and whoever else is going to sell them. With that logic, Gates could care less if PC sales took a huge nosedive because he's not the one selling them.
There is a book by Ira Levin called 'this perfect day', it has a nice little bit in it where rebellious people are given a fake rebellion to reduce the chance of them actually pulling off a real one.
Slashdot is a little like that, imagine if all these people venting their frustration at the big bad MS would take it out on them instead of having this convenient safety valve right here.
MP3 Search Engine
At Walmart.com, the $200 Microtel PC. 800 MHz, 128 MB RAM, 10 gig HD. Add linux. Add TV-out card or large monitor. Do lots more stuff than you could hope to do with the X-Box.
Sorry, but the days of the X-Box being a cheap PC are over. MS still loses money but the companies whom it buys the parts for surely are not. And I'd rather have a PC whose insides are not backwards (in order to prevent me from making it a PC).
Maybe a GNU/Linux mod on the X-Box is cool, but it is not functional.
>> Wake up. Stop being blinded by your hate for MS.
I'm impressed that Microsoft found a way to turn that hatred into cold, hard cash.
People actually believe they're "screwing" Microsoft when they buy their products, be it a modded xbox, or formatting the hard drive on their Dell to install linux.
Of all the business tactics they've ever used - I have to say I'm thoroughly impressed with this one.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
not true.
Look at it this way. The GPL is not *forced* upon you. You do not have to accept it; you don't click through, you don't sign anything, and it's not an EULA.
What it IS is a set of terms under which you can do things other than what standard copyright allows. If you don't accept the GPL, you are bound by standard copyright law; no more, no less.
If I use code available under the GPL in my softeware, the GPL is ONE option I can choose to accept to allow me to distribute/modify the code in my own work. I can also choose to contact the authors and negotiate another license. Or I can choose to NOT use any license, and hope I don't get sued by the copyright holders for copyright violation.
My point is that the GPL is not something you are forced into; it's something you can choose to use in order to avoid legal problems.
If you distribute some work that happens to be available under the GPL without accepting the terms of the GPL, you are guilty of copyright violation; you cannot be forced to release source, though you can be forced to stop distributing, and punitive damages, and releasing source will probably be one legal remedy for you (comply with a license that was offered so you don't get sued)
Hundred million loss from the whole home entertainment division.
Down from a projected half-billion. Slashdot didn't mention that.
MSFT expected xbox to turn a profit in 4 years. At this rate, it's only going to take 2.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
If you never read the file, then nothing has given you the right to copy the software.
It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
And right...PC sales are going to "nosedive" because 500 geeks from /. modded Xboxes instead of buying $2000 PCs? Riiiiiiiight. The people who were going to buy those $2k media center boxes are going to buy them anyway, and broke geeks who can't afford them, weren't going to afford them anyway. Most people are turned off by the thought of modding their precious Xbox now anyway since Xbox Live won't let their monkey asses online without commiting further crimes (stealing serial numbers).
Lame lame lame. No one cares.
Haven't you guys been paying attention? Modifying your XBox means no XBox Live for you (okay, sure, you can hack around and change your serial and/or MAC, but don't expect that to work for long, especially once it starts screwing legitimate owners and Microsoft has to really step up). It's like the past week or so of XBox news is just thrown out the window with this article.
Okay, so you're asking, why would you want to play XBox Live if your whole reason for buying a modified XBox is for this media stuff? Ask the guys that are currently bitching and moaning about their modified XBox. Sure, many of them likely modified their XBoxes to be able to play pirated games (and fewer to play imports), but I'd bet a large chunk modified their XBoxes so that they could geek out and install Linux. In any case, if modders didn't care about not playing XBox Live, then there'd never be any major stories about modders complaining, so it seems obvious that modders want to play XBox Live. And they can't.