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Mac OS X Running On Xbox
PasteEater writes "The good people over at XBox Scene have the scoop. Mac OS X has been successfully installed on a modified Xbox. What does this mean? Well, it's no Xbox Media Center, but it does prove that nerds are at the forefront once again!"
Wonder what M$ thinks is a bigger threat - Linux or OS X on the Xbox...
-T
(not a troll, just making fun of them)
Hmmm now if I could only do it the other way around.
A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned to walk forward. -- FDR
They are actually emulating OS/X on Xebian Linux! Come on, get the info straight. And that site just points to another, they didn't do it...
The first Apple gaming system?? How long do you think its going to be before Mr. Jobs sees the greatest and we get an iBox gaming system?
Even though it is running on PearPC (and thus slower than possibly imaginable), it is still impressive. Although, I just bought a used Beige G3/233 for $10 and I still have more memory (72MB) than the XBox in it.
I'll wait till Xbox2.. it's supposed to sport a PPC processor
I read through the entire article before this was posted here.
Very interesting, but I'm going to call foul.
Why out of all the screenshots is this one obscured? It's the most important of the screenshots out of the lot that was provided in the article.
I also thought TechTV had made it pretty clear that pearPC was almost unuseable on a machine below 2.5 GHz.
Yell & scream & rant & rave... it's no use... you need a shaaaave ~ Bugs Bunny
Whilst PearPC is an excellent and worthwhile project, MacOSX is so slow as to be unusuable on my 2Ghz laptop (took about 2 hours to install) so I can't see how it could be upto much on the much slower CPU in the Xbox.
Kudos for the effort though.
It's just PearPC PowerPC Architecture Emulator installed on Xbox and it's painfully-as-hell slow atm, and especially on Xbox. Nothing to see, move on.
Heres to keepin' it simple!
Support more choices in goverment-Vote 3rd party.
I've read many more plausable hoaxes. I'm going to defer judgement :P
Prosperity is only an instrument to be used, not a deity to be worshipped. Calvin Coolidge
And even as we type it is still booting . . .
Could the Commodore 64 OS be tweaked to run on the Xbox. I'd love to play some old favorites. Lazy Jones, Jump Man, Spy Hunter, Silent Service, Grog's Revenge, Great American Cross Country Road Race and a buch more. That be sweet!
This is my signature.
Why torture yourself with a MacOSXbox, which actually is PearPC running on linux which is running on Xbox hardware. I am sure the performance of it is abysmal.
This is sadder than those MacOSXP (people trying to change their windows into a Mac)
Stop torturing yourself with this. Get a real mac!!
Used Xbox: $99
OS/X: $130
Look on Bill's face: Priceless
(Seriously, that's one cheap Mac)
Apple had its own gaming system once, called Pippin.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
"But it does prove that nerds are at the forefront once again!"
/. articles only approved if they have more than 2 links in them?
:)
It proves nothing of the sort. When the average, non nerd knows and actually gives a shit about it, then, and only then, can you say that "nerds are at the forefront".
And really, have nerds ever been at the forefront before? And the forefront of what? In fact, was it really necessary to provide a link to a film that didn't have anything to do with the article? Or are
Wow, that was a bitch
Well the XBOX is basically a PC so this does not seam improvable since they are using an emulator that I have used to load OSX on my Linux box. Their is one problem withe pear PC it is extremal slow and OSX will not run like it should on its native hardware. The only reason I use pearpc is to test my web applications on mac.
Linux is like a teepee. It has no windows, no gates, and there's an Apache inside.
(Posting AC to not kharma whore)
.3.1.tar.gz. As of this writing, 0.3.1 is the most recent version. ./configure -enable-ui=x11 && --enable-cpu=generic. Even though the Xbox is an x86 processor, compiling with -enable-cpu=jitc_x86 will likely result in a failed compile. To explain, as of this writing, Xebian includes gcc 3.2 and gcc 2.95.4. PearPC will exhibit odd errors when compiled with any gcc between 2.95 and 3.3, so gcc 2.95.4 must be used. Unfortunately, gcc 2.95.4 does not work with the inline assembly used in PearPC when the jitx_x86 option is specified. /usr/local/bin on your computer should now contain a file called ppc. This file is the compiled binary.
PearPC and Mac OS X Installation
Downloading, configuring, compiling and installing PearPC
* You have software modded your Xbox and put Xebian Linux on it. You have purchased a copy of Mac OS X and made an image of it.
* Download the source code for PearPC at http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/pearpc/pearpc-0
* Use tar to decompress the file with tar -xzvf pearpc-0.3.1.tar.gz. A directory called pearpc-0.3.1 will be created.
* Go into this directory configure PearPC by running the configuration script as
* Type make && make install. If all goes well then
If you are unable to get a successful compilation of PearPC or do not understand the above instructions, you may download a precompiled version for the Xboxhere.
Editing the PearPC configuration file and formatting the hard drive image
1. Download the following: a blank hard drive image filehere, a Darwin image file at http://www.opensource.apple.com/darwinsource/image s/darwin-701.iso.gz, a PearPC configuration filehere, and a PearPC video driverhere.
2. Decompress the image file using gunzip macosx_2gb.gz. Note that this file expands to approximately 2 gigabytes. Additionally, use gunzip to decompress the pearpc video driver and configuration file. Decompress the Darwin image with the command tar -xzvf darwin-701.tar.gz.
3. Make a directory called macosx. Move the decompressed hard drive image, Darwin image, video.x video driver and macosx.pearpc configuration file into it. Then, go into the macosx directory, run the command pwd and write down the full path to it.
4. Open the macosx.pearpc configuration file with the plain text editor of your choice. Xebian by default comes with both vi and nano. If you have never used vi before, you definitely want to use nano.
5. I will refer to the path that was written down in step 3 as PATH. Make the following changes to the macosx.pearpc configuration file:
* a. Change ppc_start_resolution = "800x600x15" to "640x480x15".
* b. Change redraw_interval_msec = 40 to 200.
* c. Remove the # in front of #memory_size=0x8000000.
* d. Change pci_ide0_master_image = "test/imgs/linux.img" to "PATH/macosx_2gb.img".
* e. Change pci_ide0_slave_image = "/dev/cdrom" to "PATH/darwin-701.iso"
* Save your changes and exit.
6. Start PearPC by typing ppc macosx.pearpc. You should see the following screen:
7. Soon after this screen disappears messages will begin appearing in the PearPC window and you should eventually see the following:
8. Mirror what is typed in this screenshot. Then, type: q, q, and finally reboot. PearPC should exit.
9. Start PearPC again. Eventually you should see the following screen:
As in step 7, mirror what is typed in this window. In addition, when you see "Uncompressing Apple16X50Serial," shut down PearPC.
Your hard drive image is now properly formatted, and you are ready to install Mac OS X.
Installing Mac OS X
1. Once again, open the macosx.pearpc configuration file. Change pci_ide0_slave_image = "PATH/darwin-701.iso" to the location of your Mac OS X image. Save the changes and exit out of the text editor.
2. Start PearPC in the us
Just a "good job" to the guys over in the CoC. Always fun to see new things coming out of there. Even though I am a EE, I've taken a lot of CS classes.
Technically, I'm not so sure what is so great about this... All they did was install Linux then an emulator on top of that. Still, it is a fun thing to see.
Linux has been on XBox forever. They just emulated OS/X via PearPC on a ~P3 700 (1400 if one of those CPU modded boxes) with 64 (or maybe 128 if memory modded).
But anyways, what kind of emulated OS/X performance would you get on say, a P4 2.0ghz box with 512megs of RAM?
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
What does this mean?
It means somebody has more time on their hands than I do. Yes, this is probably a useless hack, but I'll restate my theory on why modding consoles is a Good Thing(tm).
Rumor has it that the Xbox2 is in the works. Once the Xbox2 ships, the price of the Xbox will drop dramatically. At some point, you'll probably be able to pick up a used Xbox in a pawn shop for $50. $50 makes a nice price for a second computer like an internet terminal for the kitchen or some other similar appliance. So, some will say it's a waste of time to hack then and mod them in this manner, but once they're dirt cheap in pawn shops and Ebay, you'll thank the modders.
There is no reasonable defense against an idiot with an agenda
:wq
(Can't RTFA 'cos it's slashdotted)
How could you ron OS X on a machine without replacing the x86 CPU with a PPC CPU, which would require replacing the motherboard, which would include switching from BIOS to OpenFirmware, which would require replacing the graphics card and some other crap.
And if this is the case, is it running on an XBox or is it a PowerBook that has been case modded to look like an XBox.
that or they'e really running Darwin on the XBox, which is a different thing entirely.
THe main reason this works on the XBox is because it's already possible on x86 desktops using PearPC.
I agreed with one guy in this story about how AT&T switching to OS X would be prohibitively expensive, but it appears that AT&T found a way to get their OS on a $150 system. Good job!
-Rob
Marriage doesn't have to suck!
I should go over to the CoC building, find these people, and slap them with a cold trout... One would think that there are better things to do than create unusable OSX installs here... If these folks really have this much free time on their hands, I envy them.
Sheeez, I can't even get OS X running on my Mac. Seriously, it's been in the shop of CompUSA wizards for about a month now. Maybe I'll upgrade to an X-box.
and so the MSFBI was founded to take a bite out of crime(no pun intended)
Once Xebian is installed they compile PearPC
In other words, they are emulating a Mac for it. That is like me telling people I got my Xbox to play SNES Games when all I am really doing is pulling up an SNES emulator on my xbox with Linux.
I could understand OS X being slow on the Xbox, but do you guys think that doing something like this on the Xbox 2 would be better, seeing how the Xbox 2 uses the G5?
Apple Pippin 2 anyone?
I spit coffee on my monitor when I read that headline. Since the site appears to be melted: HOW THE SHIT DO YOU MAKE OSX WORK ON AN XBOX?! Aren't there a whole mess of arcitechture problems associated with doing that?
Only in a Slashdot fantasy can a Slackware install turn into several hours of sex . . . . .
And here I went and bought a 12" PowerBook...and I could have used my Xbox all along. Now...I just need to find that 1394 port for my DV editing!
Of what? Skincare? Personal Hygine? Fashion? Popularity?
Oh...Right. Xbox Modification.
This post was brought to you by Mucusoft.
thanks to mirrordot.org
Guess what? I can also run PDP-11 software on my XBox! Or any other operating system, for that matter.
This was done through emulation. The blurb seems to imply that something incredible was accomplished, when all that was done was loading it into an emulator.
It may be pretty funny to see OSX running off an XBox on a TV, but it's hardly usable as it is. Call me when it runs natively.
Slow as heck? Ehh, whatever... but very cool looking page for that site! Cheers, 0mega
As we all know it would never be usable... Hell linux is almost too slow ( for m applications atleast) to run on an xbox... That is withouht the beatuiful ram upgrade to 128MB. Every xbox that does not run games needs the xtra ram.
They installed linux and PearPC
the legal section in that in the EULA for OS X it states that you cannot install OS X on any non-Apple hardware(probably due to the whole clone thing that failed miserably), I'm not saying that it's right or wrong, but it's an issue they should have addressed.
Monstar L
Well at least it is still cheaper then an Emac,,, dose this mean Micro$oft and Apple will be in bed togeather??
Why would I want to put Mac OS X on my Xbox? I bought my Xbox to play video games, after all . . .
Mikey-San
Karma: +Eleventy billion (mostly affected by watching Celebrity Jeopardy)
It's the Georgia Tech IT department getting ready to expell a student for having it's systems /.'d You would think that /. would look at the supplied links and do some filtering when it comes to links hosted by a University. But I guess that is asking too much. I hope Ga Tech students enjoy using pencil and paper while their computer systems turn to a pile of molten metal.
Prof. Farnsworth - "Oh a lesson in not changing history from Mr I'm-My-Own-Grandpa!"
When MS announced the new XBox was going to run on PPC processors, I surmised that MS was doing it as a way to kill off any sales of Macs to true geeks. I was absolutely right. Once the new XBox is out, people won't need to buy a G5. They can just get an XBox. Microsoft wins, and Apple loses.
Bill Gates is pure evil.
Using PearPC to "run" OS X on an modded X-Box is not groundbreaking, headline worthy or "news for nerds," -- it's just sensationalist BS to drive traffic and push ads.
but it does prove that nerds are at the forefront once again!
Not to sound like a dick, but nerds are at the forefront of what exactly? Nerdiness? Big surprise there folks.
Big surprise...
Hitomi Ikazuchi Dragon Clan Barbarian Monk
What it proves is that there are some people with some serious free-time on their hands...
There seems to be an inordinate focus on hack this, crack that, emulate the other and port an OS to the most outlandishly unlikely hardware possible. (Hey, look! I'm running OS/2 on my toaster!)
As a stunt this is really amazing.
As a project resulting in something useful, it is dubious at best.
I find myself in the same category. I'm just getting into PocketPC programming and my first thoughts are about emulators. Are we so lacking in imagination that we can't come up with any original ideas?
I guess the truth is that almost all the "low hanging fruit" has been picked, and now we must work much harder to come with an original idea. Shoulders of giants, etc, etc.
Just so I don't sound like too much of an old curmudgeon, I will say that it looks like these are students, and it is of course a great learning experience.
instead of acting like a jackass and trolling by downvoting a bit more, you could also just tell me who I should direct my problems to. Right now, I don't have much choice but posting it all in here. I guess you never thought about that huh?
I have a PC and an original Mac OSX CD. I have no Mac though. How do you make an image of the OSX CD on a PC in .iso format? The only apps I found that will image it don't save the file as that format. Nero and one other one (it's been a while now).
jeebus. do we really need a link to the "Revenge of the Nerds" movie?
freaking hypertext junkies... go play on a wiki.
£200-£300 UKP will get you a crap G3
That is just fantastic! =)
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
If it is true that PearPC's minimum specs are a 2.5Ghz processor and the XBox runs a 733mhz PIII. This XBox hack isn't even running at 1/3 the minimum spec of PearPC doing anything remotely usable.
Click here or a puppy gets stomped!
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Why not just go here?
What happens, though, when mirrordot gets slashdotted?
SiO2
I fail to see the point.
The XBox hardware is dated now, anyway. You could probably buy all of the components and build yourself an XBox-equivalent PC for about the same price (P3 processor.. GeForce3.. 10GB HD.. not too expensive, nowadays..)
Now, if PearPC would work at decent speeds on recent hardware.. THEN I'd be impressed (I've always wanted to try out OSX, but I'm not going to spend thousands to buy a Mac..)
I am the maverick of Slashdot
It's not just the X-Prize. Don't you watch the _Daily Show_ with John Stewart? "The nerds win the pennant! The nerds win the pennant! The nerds win the pennant!"
--
make install -not war
"THE HEXED BOX!" Now, we've got another reason to refer to it as THE HEXED BOX
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
987mhz G3
i know it says 9x7 G3, but im not sure of the middle number
this isnt possible with pearPC
Another amazing breakthrough, someone managed to make an XBox function like a cheap, outdated, and under-powered PC. Oh wait, it is a cheap, outdated, and under-powered PC.
Hardware Hacking whitepapers
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That doesn't look right.
After reading the news about the Xbox being able to run OS X you may be asking yourself, "How can I do this as well, what do I need?"
Well, the answer to that question would be that you need to have a Xbox, obviously, and a way to run unsigned code.
In my experiences I have found that www.xbox-modchips.com provides quality tech suport, a good warranty, and overall great prices.
Right now the most Compatible chip in the market is the Xecuter 3 modchip. This can let you run the unsigned code required for a Mac OS X install.
In my opinion though, OS X needs a lot of proccessing power to run it's OS and requires a good bit of memory too, but the 733mhz proccessing power and the 64mb of ram that come with the Xbox may fall short behind on the minimal basis of running OS X on an Xbox.
Linux on the Xbox can do some great things such as, connect to your email server, browse the internet, run Linux apps, and even daisy chain several Xboxes together that are running Linux and make a 10,000 mhz machine. Linux on the Xbox has progressed very far, but how will Mac's OS X hold up like the current Xbox-linux Os's out today?
Only time will tell.
May this post be indexed by spiders, and archived for all to see as my Internet epitaph.
Apple used to give away System Software. Up 'till System 7.1, IIRC. Now it's $130 every year or so.
I don't see this as any different than buying a DVD. If I want to play the DVD on my linux box that's OK with me, I bought it. The implicit license with CSS scrambling just doesn't make sense.
Same here. I love OSX, but if I paid for it I ought to be able to do with it as I please, if I'm not violating Apple's rights. The "Right to Profit" doesn't count. Does Microsoft stipulate (yet) what kind of hardware you can run XP on?
If Apple wants to start giving away System Software again I'd be willing to reconsider this position.
If Apple's business model is such that part of it's OS R&D costs are built into the machine price and that business model can't work outside of EULA it may be worth their time to reconsider that business model. Apple's only recourse with the current business model is to start suing their users. They'll have to do a new take on the "I fought the law" advertising campaign.
This theme seems to be appearing over and over again, with only the actors changing.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
As a new owner of an iBook, I'm curious : how well does your Win98 work on it?
Well, there has been this article about the future of the darwin platform...
I just didn't know their next PDA would be Xbox sized 8)
It takes 40+ muscles to frown, but only four to extend your arm and bitchslap the motherfucker
So the Xbox can run OSX. But can it run OSX running a Dreamcast emulator running an NES emulator?
When the XBox 2 will come out, it will probably be modded to run Linux, too. Then mac-on-linux http://www.maconlinux.org/ will provide us the cheapest gaming macs ever.
U R SO LEET CUZ U INSTALLED OSX ON LINUCKS ON UN EXBOX! DAT IS SO HARD 2 DUE CUZ NUBODY KNOWZ HOW 2 UZE PEARPC ON TEH LINUX OMG!
i bow to ur leetness
(sarcasm; once again the linux zealots attack and hit me for 0 damage, I laugh at them)
This should be considered a crime against nature.
It and it's decendants should be cast out of the village.
Of course it's a hoax, I can't see any stars in those pictures.
I'm too cool for a sig.
Is it fair to mod down the answer to a question?
All they did was install OS X via PearPC on Linux running on the XBox. As far as I know:
...
1. Linux has been running on the XBox for a while.
2. It has already been demonstrated that PearPC can emu PowerPC on x86 and run Mac OS X (albeit slowly)
All they did was give instrux on how to compile PearPC for the XBox, which any seasoned Linux user could have figured out if they tried. Beyond that, wouldn't this be SLOW AS DIRT?!?! Even on a very fast x86 desktop machine, PearPC crawls like a gimp sloth w/ no hind legs. And wouldn't most XBox-Linux users probably also have a faster x86 PC that they could run OS X thru PearPC on?
I fail to see how this is interesting in the slightest. Maybe I'm jaded, but to me it seems there's nothing new here. Please move along
And they modified it how? By installing a PPC-970 mod chip perhaps??
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
In other new, hell has just frozen over.
This should be even easier -- and faster -- on XBox 2, with it's plethora of PPC derived processors.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Games run just fine on Mac OS X and modern Macs have plenty good hardware for casual gamers (the iMac) or serious gamers (PowerMac G5). Apple even has a website devoted to gaming. Most modern games are released for Mac OS X as well as Windows. Your argument is SOOOOOO 1996.
http://www.apple.com/games
Why not just go here?
Did you not notice the background?!
I had but a simple dream, to destroy all humans.
I'm going to somewhat second that. It seems something funny is going on, maybe explainable, maybe not. Compare this pic with this pic (using a tabbed browser helps a lot). Why are the menu bars totally different sizes when the resolution of each picture is the same?
HIV Crosses Species Barrier... into Muppets
it's not a screamer, but it works. 10.3 needs 128 of physical ram, so it looks doable, but i'd like to see the about screen and a run of Apple System Profiler...
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
"but it does prove that nerds are at the forefront once again!"
I hope nerds will be at the forefront in a military campaign. I'd like to use their giant brains as a shield against enemy fire.
Why yes, I have been playing war games recently. How did you guess?
Okay, I was first confused as hell, but then I noted it was just Linux, emulator, and a bit of tinkering. It was clever, but not really that clever.
So, I suppose a GameCube would run OSX faster than XBox, or maybe we'll just need to wait for XBox2... PPC processor is pretty much needed anyway =)
The existence of PearPC in general brings up an interesting thought...if it's possible to create a software emulation of a Mac, what's stopping someone from creating a PowerPC-based Mac clone? It would appear that the proprietary "Apple ROM" that prevented cloning in the past is no longer an issue. I'm guessing the barrier here is less technical and more financial...
Technically it is installed on top of an emulator which is software. It's the emulator that talks to the hardware so one could argue that it doesn't go against the EULA.
being able to run SoftwareUpdate?
'Cause you're cheap?
Just bite the bullet, buy a friggin' Mac and get the more important parts (or the defective parts) kept up to date free from/by Apple.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
can emulate any other computer.
We have known this for over half a century.
It's been done and but I wonder if it was worthwhile distraction from doing real work.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
My question has always been...
Why can't someone just sign the code? If not legitimately through Microsoft but what about getting the software to fake the signature to the xbox?
What's preventing that? I'm sure something is, but I'm curious...
why did you guys like to an old chip?
Xenium is far more better than the chip you linked to!!!
Xenium is the chip featured in your previous xbox modding post that was reviews by Home Cinema Choice which pointed the site http://www.xboxchips.com/ for sourcing the chip. dont confuse people into buying old chips that dont support the new revisions of the Xbox
Just my 2 cents
Okay, the system can be modded to run any x86 code you want. WE KNOW THIS ALREADY. You can install linux, windows, and whatever else that will fit in the ram (which is 128MB, seeing as how we've hacked the memory limit too) With this in mind, how many times are we going to see the same damn story over and over again?
"They've got QUICKEN running on Xbox!? OMFG!!!"
Sorry, not interested anymore.
...a really huge, black, uncomfortable mouse with several unreachable buttons.
when the garbage man takes it away or it goes to charity, odds are nobody is going to be snooping around. but if you take their computer, how do they know you won't be readint heir old files? how do they know you cna't recover deleted files? it's a little spooky when somebody wants your garbage, you know. (could I have your used tampons?)
It's a travesty! If Apple doesn't sue, I'll sue myself! It's an insult to the Mac!
Who moved my sig?
I'm amazed at the amount of people on here that don't get it. It wasn't done to be usable, it wasn't done to get a cheap Mac, it was done because it could be done. The guy that wrote the article is a hacker trying to get OS/X to run on an Xbox because it might have been possible and he succeeded. I would think almost everybody on Slashdot would understand that line of thinking. I guess not...
... so we've just proved in one fell swoop that both MacOS X and Xbox suck.
But no big surprises there...
What happens, though, when mirrordot gets slashdotted?
They just post it again, recursively.
Now that would be a worthwhile hack. Or how about running the PSX OS (the new DVD burner/Tivo all-in-one, not the PS1)?
Depends on what you mean by "almost unusable".
The slowest machine I've installed Mac OS X on is a Power PC 604e at 132 MHz. It took 20 hours to complete the install. The resulting system was responsive enough in a Terminal window, but even pulling down a menu took tens of seconds. I wouldn't call it "usable". Mac OS X is optimised for the G3, and later versions than the one I tried (10.1) won't even run on a 604e.
On a G3/233 it took an hour or so, and it was usable.
If they took 10 hours on an Xbox with 128MB of simulated RAM, then they're emulating a G3 that's performing like a 604e... it may be a bit faster than my 604e/132, but I wouldn't bet on it.
Usability is in the eye of the beholder.
pearPC was almost unuseable on a machine below 2.5 GHz
10 hours for a Mac OS X install? Yeh. That's a good definition of "almost unusable".
Wake me up when they do it on the Power PC based Xbox-2.
Oh, and the speed the "About" box reports is totally unreliable, particularly on an emulator.
Mac OS X first investigates the Open Firmware device tree looking for the CPU type in order to instantiate the appropriate platform drivers. There is no mention of XBox 2 having Open Firmware, so obviously the Open Firmware device tree will need to be artificially constructed by the guys who write the Mac OS X booter for the XBox 2, and they can make the OS believe that the system is running on a G5 processor.
With the sleek modern look of the Xbox, now you don't have to settle for running OS X on one of Apple's oversized crates!
What happens, though, when mirrordot gets slashdotted?
Simple, somebody launches mirrormirrordot...
Yes, ditch Mac IE and make sure to test in Safari. Not many use IE on the Mac anymore.
Just look, it's one of two numbers, 997Mhz PowerPC G3, or 887 Mhz PowerPC G3 (which seems most likely based on the curvature of the first two numbers). All it takes is a little look to notice this. Sure they tried to hide the numbers, but they didn't do a very good job.
Does that make the XBox an Apple or a Pear?
The current Xbox console has an Ethernet jack. There exist hard drives that connect to TCP/IP/Ethernet; these use various network attached storage protocols such as iSCSI, NFS, CIFS, etc. Assuming that somebody does figure out how to mod the Xbox 2 to run arbitrary code, would it be so hard to port Darwin and tell it to mount such a network filesystem?
If? When GNU/Linux gets ported to the XBOX2
"When"? The whole purpose of this Palladium/NGSCB/TCPA/Nexus thing is so that Xbox 2 doesn't get cracked and turned into a GNU/LinuXbox. Even without a full Treacherous Computing setup and with just the separation of executable and writable pages similar to that introduced in Windows XP SP2, version 2 of the so-called Windows XB can prevent MechInstaller style exploits from overwriting the kernel.
Install some kind of bootloader on the XBox2.
Now that Microsoft has developed a form of separation of executable and writable memory areas, as implemented in Windows XP Service Pack 2, you're not going to see MechInstaller type bootloaders for Xbox 2 real soon.
So, your X-Box _WOULD_ be playing SNES games. Are you confused as to exactly how emulation works?
Through ROM piracy? Or did you dump your Game Paks yourself?
and I suppose Microsoft doesn't condone using VPC Mac (though it doesn't complain, either).
Microsoft makes Virtual PC, having bought maintainership of the product line from Connectix. It took a while for Microsoft to work around the limitation of the PowerPC G5 architecture, which removed the instructions that load and store integers in Intel's little-endian byte order. It takes a bit trickier recompilation to account for that, especially in the variable-length instruction coding of x86 as opposed to the fixed-length instruction coding of ARM, Alpha, MIPS, PPC, and pretty much every other common 32- or 64-bit architecture.
Why?
What is it with these people? I'm sure that in a couple of months, someone will have installed linux on a tree or something. I'm all in favour of pushing the boundaries of technology but a Mac that played XBox games would be a hell of a lot more useful than an XBox with stripey window bars.
drop it, dumbass.