XNU (the kernel inside Darwin and OS X) is not BSD. It includes some FreeBSD components, but the driver architecture is completely different. So no, it won't "work with little or no changes".
How long are people going to keep raising this bogus argument? (Probably at least as long as the "no 2-button mouse" argument.)
You can buy a Mac Mini for $499. So... what high cost of entry?
How long are people going to keep raising this bogus counter-argument?
The Mac mini is a shitbox. The form factor is very cool but it's basically made out of very outdated components. And if you add up all the options to make it decent, you'll notice it's not that low-priced. Who the hell would abandon its moderately decent PC for a Mac mini?
Just because Apple has whipped up a poor machine and slapped a low price tag on it, doesn't make it an interesting platform to Switch(tm).
It cannot run on any x86. OS X extensively uses SSE2 everywhere, and in some places SSE3 too. You need at least a SSE2-capable CPU to run it (Pentium 4, Pentium M, or any 64-bit AMD), and then again it's apparently not very stable.
The size of compiled code in a modern video game is insignificant next to the rest of its ressources. We're talking 20 megs tops. And that's uncompressed. So no, it's not going to be a huge download. On any half-decent broadband connection, this is virtually nothing.
I'm surprised that Microsoft went the emulation route. IHMO doing ports would be better.
They could whip up a wrapper environment that would ease up the task of porting XBox games to the XBox360 to the point where some games only need a recompile, then ask game developers to recompile their games with it (and fix issues if encountered, or just give up if the game is too much bother to port).
Then, whenever an XBox game disc is inserted into an XBox360, the console would perform an online check to see if there is a 360 port of it. If there is one, it would it then run it from the hard disc. Only the binaries would be downloaded, game ressources would still be accessed from the original game's disc.
Unlike SUSE, which has some closed components, everything in RedHat has always been open source, including their Enterprise distributions. Novell is in no way "following in the footsteps of Red Hat Inc.".
The real crime here is that River City Ransom got ranked two positions under it. That's just wrong. RCR was easily one of the ten best NES games there is, while Battletoads was crap.
"Does the GPX2 have a 2D accelerator of any sort?"
No, probably just a "plain" framebuffer, just like the GP32. Cool for general purposes, but suffers the same video performance problems as old PCs had.
They just updated the official page with a FAQ, and according to it the control pad is analog... Ouch. That will screw up almost all uses of the system.
The TapWave Zodiac bombed because it was a closed platform*, which only big companies like Nintendo and Sony can manage to pull off because of their massive first and third party support. The folks at GamePark understood that, and made their handhelds completely open. So no, it won't bomb like TapWave.
*It was PalmOS-based, and could therefore run any PalmOS app, however the libraries needed to build real native apps were locked down and usable only by registered third parties.
It won't have a keyboard. A shell without a keyboard is not too cool. But it will be an entirely open platform, so don't worry about not having access.
Multimedia under Linux is hell because any usable open source media player is violating a shitload of software patents. This isn't the devs' fault, nor is it the distros'. It's just the sad truth that virtually every mainstream codec out there is protected by software patents (even mp3, which most people take for granted, requires an expensive license to decode). The distros can't bundle usable media players because of this, and most media players can't distribute binaries for the same reason. And no, not being US-based isn't a viable excuse.
You mention the idea of a commercial closed-source player. That wouldn't work. It would be too expensive to cover every important codec, not to mention most of them won't accept selling you licenses at all (the two biggest codec owners, Microsoft and Apple, have no interest in seeing Linux get better on the desktop front).
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XNU (the kernel inside Darwin and OS X) is not BSD. It includes some FreeBSD components, but the driver architecture is completely different. So no, it won't "work with little or no changes".
How long are people going to keep raising this bogus argument? (Probably at least as long as the "no 2-button mouse" argument.)
You can buy a Mac Mini for $499. So... what high cost of entry?
How long are people going to keep raising this bogus counter-argument?
The Mac mini is a shitbox. The form factor is very cool but it's basically made out of very outdated components. And if you add up all the options to make it decent, you'll notice it's not that low-priced. Who the hell would abandon its moderately decent PC for a Mac mini?
Just because Apple has whipped up a poor machine and slapped a low price tag on it, doesn't make it an interesting platform to Switch(tm).
It cannot run on any x86. OS X extensively uses SSE2 everywhere, and in some places SSE3 too. You need at least a SSE2-capable CPU to run it (Pentium 4, Pentium M, or any 64-bit AMD), and then again it's apparently not very stable.
"But if we purchase our own hardware, they'll be allowed to destroy it?"
Ha ha silly you. You don't purchase your own hardware, you rent it from them for an unlimited amount of time.
Yes! Also, at the the country selection page in iTMS, the Japan icon is right at the middle of the page! Very spooky.
The size of compiled code in a modern video game is insignificant next to the rest of its ressources. We're talking 20 megs tops. And that's uncompressed. So no, it's not going to be a huge download. On any half-decent broadband connection, this is virtually nothing.
I'm surprised that Microsoft went the emulation route. IHMO doing ports would be better.
They could whip up a wrapper environment that would ease up the task of porting XBox games to the XBox360 to the point where some games only need a recompile, then ask game developers to recompile their games with it (and fix issues if encountered, or just give up if the game is too much bother to port).
Then, whenever an XBox game disc is inserted into an XBox360, the console would perform an online check to see if there is a 360 port of it. If there is one, it would it then run it from the hard disc. Only the binaries would be downloaded, game ressources would still be accessed from the original game's disc.
Though not run by Wikimedia, what you are suggesting does exist: Uncyclopedia
Unlike SUSE, which has some closed components, everything in RedHat has always been open source, including their Enterprise distributions. Novell is in no way "following in the footsteps of Red Hat Inc.".
Hah, you got me there. Exponential functions such as the half-life have never been my forte.
...and HL beat both HL2 and Goldeneye. Christ, man. Learn how to count.
Oh, and HL2 did beat Goldeneye.
"Hey, now that there's been 2 half-lives past are we down to a quarter life?"
I was going to make a nasty joke about you sucking at math, but it's just too easy.
I agree. I gained some sort of respect for Gamespy (of all companies!) when they ranked DOOM #1 game of all time in their Top 50 a few years ago.
The real crime here is that River City Ransom got ranked two positions under it. That's just wrong. RCR was easily one of the ten best NES games there is, while Battletoads was crap.
Scratch that. It's digital. I guess I should go to sleep now.
"Does the GPX2 have a 2D accelerator of any sort?"
No, probably just a "plain" framebuffer, just like the GP32. Cool for general purposes, but suffers the same video performance problems as old PCs had.
They just updated the official page with a FAQ, and according to it the control pad is analog... Ouch. That will screw up almost all uses of the system.
The TapWave Zodiac bombed because it was a closed platform*, which only big companies like Nintendo and Sony can manage to pull off because of their massive first and third party support. The folks at GamePark understood that, and made their handhelds completely open. So no, it won't bomb like TapWave.
*It was PalmOS-based, and could therefore run any PalmOS app, however the libraries needed to build real native apps were locked down and usable only by registered third parties.
That's pretty cool, but I'm wondering how it's plugged in?
No, it's a USB device port, not a host port. It has no USB host controller capabilities.
It won't have a keyboard. A shell without a keyboard is not too cool. But it will be an entirely open platform, so don't worry about not having access.
Porting simple SDL-based Linux games to this device will be a breeze, since it's already Linux and SDL.
Multimedia under Linux is hell because any usable open source media player is violating a shitload of software patents. This isn't the devs' fault, nor is it the distros'. It's just the sad truth that virtually every mainstream codec out there is protected by software patents (even mp3, which most people take for granted, requires an expensive license to decode). The distros can't bundle usable media players because of this, and most media players can't distribute binaries for the same reason. And no, not being US-based isn't a viable excuse.
You mention the idea of a commercial closed-source player. That wouldn't work. It would be too expensive to cover every important codec, not to mention most of them won't accept selling you licenses at all (the two biggest codec owners, Microsoft and Apple, have no interest in seeing Linux get better on the desktop front).
Hatred is a sign of fear.