Xbox Linux Made Possible Without a Modchip

An anonymous reader writes "Free-X have released an exploit for the Xbox that will let you get Linux on the machine without any hardware mods at all... Microsoft is already threatening them with legal action. Here's the Free-X statement. Free-X say they had been trying to contact MS for a month but were ignored, which is why they've released the exploit. Should be interesting to watch this one."

Comments

Re:honestly... reverse social engineering

[jkrise]

I think MS is appealing to the 'supposed' crooked instincts of the Gnu folks.

The chief reason for the success of GNU, Linux and indeed saome flavors of BSD, is that the hardware is a commodity item and available from multiple vendors. Thus the hardware is an open platform and true competition drives down prices to make it affordable, viable and immune to monopolization.

Now, the XBox is a proprietary piece of shit, and is controlled by a single gorilla (of course, with contributions from a few chimps). What's the motivation of getting GNU and Linux running on this proprietary junk?

MS loses money since they make losses on hardware? Crap! Unless the XBox is sold for under $50, this assumption is ridiculous. Geeks get a sense of revenge when they try to annoy MS? Sorry - MS is too smart for that. If they felt XBox hacks were truly threatening their margins, they'd have let loose SCO or some other SCUD litigation.

Doing geeky things is not the primary or only objective of the GNU connosieurs - the more important reason is to make the software AND the hardware free of encumbrances and/or lock-ins.

The best hacks for the XBox will become meaningless if MS comes out with a new design. The devious statements and logic emanating from the press about the XBox and the hacks - does in fact indicate that some kind of social engg. is at work.
It's like all the brouhaha about the latest Harry Potter - how it's getting stolen, how many millions have sold in the first week, how some cheap folks are trying to obtain illegal copies, etc. It's promoting by making an appeal to criminal insticts.

Cracking an XBox to run Linux is like using a 500MB word-processor to write a 1 page letter. Waste of resources and effort, it profits only MS. Better contribute to some useful GNU projects, such as AbiWord - there's many of them out there that need attention.