Comments on Geek with an attitude: My iPod now runs Linux...

Yes the original Xbox was just a slightly locked d...

2007-03-28T19:34:00.000+05:30

Yes the original Xbox was just a slightly locked down PC (700MHz P3). The 360 is much more paranoid about DRM.

Clearly neither Sony nor Microsoft want games to be pirated. But part of Sony understands there is a home brew market of people who like to take control of their hardware and has done this. But thats just my wishful thinking :)

I think the reality is closer to the fact the PS3 is so damn expensive. So unless you think its a computer (or a cheap Blueray player) there is little incentive.

On the otherhand, M$ wants to take away anything they possibly can (e.g: 360 now supports HD over component, after a firmware upgrade) and so this is a possibility in a conspiracy theory way.

There was a digg post about a developer that got free Zune from M$ to put Linux on it.

http://www.digg.com/linux_unix/Microsoft_wants_to_put_Linux_on_the_Zune

Ah, you said second gen... which makes my previous...

2007-03-28T18:04:00.000+05:30

Ah, you said second gen... which makes my previous comment sound a little strange (could also be the weed).

Yes, Microsoft will find ways to block this and people will find ways around these blocks. For Sony, Linux is a selling point. For Microsoft, Linux is a competitor. There's only two ways Microsoft can deal with that: Buy it or kill it. Since neither of those work they'll happily settle for maiming it whenever they can.

If I remember right (it's the weed, it gets to my ...

2007-03-28T17:57:00.000+05:30

If I remember right (it's the weed, it gets to my mind sometimes) the first gen X-BOX ran great on Linux. This is the most well known project devoted to it, though there are plently of others, and most of the popular distros have precombiled binaries for the X-BOX too. I believe it was done within six months of the X-BOX launch.

Microsoft doesn't directly block Linux from being installed on the machine, but most of the methods involve using exploits that allow pirated software to be used on the X-BOX which is what Microsoft is against, or that's what they say...