Linux on XBox...Amithlon far behind?

[sprocket]

With modified chips some folks are getting around Microsoft's barriers to hacking the XBox, running Linux and generally circumventing their marketing plans.

http://www.techtv.com/news/security/story/0,24195,3388837,00.html

If this is possible/practical/happening when will we see the first Amithlon-XBox?

[seer]

Well, I hope never.. Sounds like the Anti christ visiting heavon....

[bhoggett]

Don't hold your breath. There's bound to be some heavy kernel hacking and specific drivers which would make Amithlon tricky to adapt.

Then again who knows? If 2.0 ever gets released, and makes enough waves outside Amiga circles, there may be a demand for it. If there aren't enough people screaming for it, it won't get done. It is a commercial product, after all.

[Valan]

Even though the XBox hardware is better(on paper) I would still prefer to use PS2 as a full computer.

I prefer Sony over Microsoft, it has firewire, 2 USBs and Sony fully support and produce a Linux 'kit' for PS2. This 'kit' includes documentation about the PS2 hardware allowing programmers work directly with the hardware.
Basically this turns the PS2 into a dev system!

Also I keep hearing that the hardware is similiar to that of the Amiga in that it also uses multiple CPUs to allow tha hardware to multitask.

[Blitter]

I have the mod chip in hand.  I have yet to break out the soldering iron though.  There are 28 wires to solder.  I'm going to wait until I have the time and will to do it.  Or wait until the DVD drive fails and I get a replacement as it's still under warrenty at this point in time.

The last statement is what's really holding me back. As you can't buy a replacement DVD drive as they are serialized in the BIOS.  BASTARDS!

Blitter

[DarkHawke]

I'm hip.  Why waste time hacking away at a console that's already going down (first to cut its price, "Xbox Only" games are coming to the GBA, nowhere NEAR the PS2's market penetration, "director's cut" of DOA3 may be coming to PS2) when the PS2 was not only DESIGNED to be expandible in this way, but officially IS?  

Me, I don't need yet another desktop PC, but I sure would like some kind of system by which I could, say, install some software and a networking card on my PS2 and use it to access all the information and programs on my desktop PC from my living room.  So I could just use the one web browser and not have to manually transfer data and bookmarks between two different systems, play the same games on both PS2 and PC (the game automatically scaling up or down to fully exploit the system's resources), and in general, just having a transparent network between these two devices and any other devices I might get in the future, with the ability to access any device in the network as easily as I can access my PS2's DVD drive.  Anyone know where I can get something like this? :-D

[Quixote]

See Valen’s reply above.  Sony have produced / are producing /will produce (sorry, I can’t be more clear than that…) -a kit to add a hard drive to the PS2.  The plate at the rear of the HD will also have an ethernet port and possibly others.  

There was an article posted here on Amiga.org about it a few months ago.  As for linking network games run on it to your Amiga/Mac/PC, et al, I remember thinking that this would work real well with Amiga’s Digital Enviroment, as soon as the appropriate translation layer was written…

[aMIGA_dUDE]

As I know (source UK PSW Issue 31, Aug 02 Page 20) They say PS2 addon would cost about £190.  For that you would get PS2 Linux software, keyboard, Mouse, Hard drive etc.  

It isn't a review in the mag, it just looks like they are printing the PR which Sony told them about.

[Valan]

I think the interesting thing about the PS2 is that it has USB and iLink(Firwire) on the console.
Therefore it should be possible to link up any USB device such as printers, scanners or storage devices. Similiarly with the iLink. It should be possible to take images or video from a camera.

The only thing that stops this being ideal is the low memory(32Mb).
How about AmigaOS5?
Would this be needed to make this a 'must have' system rather than a low resource one?

Valan

[rorland]

Considering there is no keyboard available for Xbox ("it's not a computer")  I wouldnt want to use an Amithlon-XboX with a piece of crap joypad. I also wouldnt want to play any first person shooters with a joypad. Have you ever tried playing quake on an amiga with a joypad and played against pc users with mouse & keyboard? Lets just say I dumped my joypad. Oh btw in my opinion Halo sucks ass because off the awkard steering with joypad.

[Blitter]

I think the interesting thing about the PS2 is that it has USB and iLink(Firwire) on the console.

The Xbox controller ports are USB as well, they just happen to be a proprietary plug.  Once the pin-outs on the ports are solved there will be many USB devices for the Xbox, I would imagine on of the first items will be a keyboard. That is ofcourse if MS doesn't stomp on it.  They stated that It is a console and online game machine only, so who knows.

Blitter