Slashdot Mirror
X-Box Hackers Trying to Blackmail Microsoft?
wumarkus420 writes "According to this article from CNet News, an anonymous X-Box security research team is threatening Microsoft: either release a digitally-signed official Linux bootloader or face the release of a new exploit that supposedly works without a modchip. While I doubt Microsoft 'negotiates with terrorists,' this should still turn out to be a good I-told-you-so if the exploit is verified." Sounds like a good way to end up in jail.
Not necessarily, they could anonymously publish it anonymously on freenet.
(http://www.freenetproject.org)
- PS. This is what part of the alphabet would look like if Q and R where eliminated.
Someone's got some issues... Is it about time to come out of the closet?
Ouch. Hits close to home?
Let me see if I get this right:
A tiny percentage of X-Box users don't want to play games, they want to convert the X-Box to a Linux box. Even though the X-Box isn't designed for this and you have to really bust your hump to get it working. Even when you could just buy an old laptop on Ebay for a hundred bucks, and use a plain-vanilla installer with no chip-modding at all. No, they want to run Linux on the X-Box.
So, ok, this tiny percentage of X-Box users, who aren't making Microsoft any money at all because everyone knows the profits are made on GAMES, not CONSOLES, want Microsoft to give them a digitally-signed bootloader for their favorite Linux distro so they don't have to go to all the trouble and mod the box, etc.
So, moving right along, the same tiny percentage of X-Box users has found some exploit which will allow people to do what they're asking Microsoft to help them do, only without the digitally signed loader, so for some reason the X-Box users think it isn't as neato a solution as Microsoft lending them a hand with their hobby.
So, instead of asking nicely, which wouldn't have gotten them anywhere anyway, they decided to send Microsoft an ultimatum and start a Big Pissing Match(tm). Which will probably result in their getting in all kinds of trouble and much yelling and shaking of lawyerly fists.
What's the point, here? Is it just the challenge? Is spite against Microsoft worth shelling out over 200 bucks for a console, just so they lose some game sales and you get the personal satisfaction of knowing that Bill Gates Would Not Approve? Is sticking it to "the man" so important that you'll spend all your time digging around in a poor little game console (instead of creating a new open-source application and making a name for yourselves)?
Come ON, guys, this is lame. Who the hell cares if the X-Box runs Linux? It's got some really fun games on it, isn't that enough?
Think about it...
Farewell! It's been a fine buncha years!
Really, on Slashdot, I expect that suggesting you read the article would get modded down as a Troll!
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I'm all for Microsoft releasing a linux version, but I can understand that if the above is the case, then it wouldn't be good for their platform, and frankly that wouldn't be fair to them. (Please don't waste our time responding that you don't care if it hurts them. Unless you are a communist, the economics require that they protect their interests. Deal with it.)
Ouch. Hits close to home?
I just know there's a joke about the back door somewhere there.
WWJD.... for a Klondike bar?
Kind of like when I went to purchase PC's through a local reseller who had to charge me the Windows tax if they wanted to keep _their_ license to sell -- even though those PC's _still_ run Linux to this day...
... but to run Windows means constant security updates -- even though I can't get those updates unless I agree to basically make my computer's data property of Microsoft...
THAT kind of extorsion?
Or do you mean the kind where up until recently there really hasn't been a decent word processing and spreadsheet package -- at least not like there _used_ to be -- and the main picker, being M$-Office, is $450?
THAT kind of extorsion?
Perhaps you're referring to the fact that in a few cases I have NO CHOICE but to run Windows
THAT kind of extorsion?
Would you like to super-size that?
Hint #1: acquire concept of spelling before calling someone an idiot.
Hint #2: Preview comments (whilst calling someone an idiot) for spelling errors before posting
Hey, it only makes sense ;-)
"I didn't come here to tell you how this is going to end. I came here to tell you how it's going to begin"