USS Clueless - Mailstorm

(Captain's log): Maybe I'm just discouraged now. Maybe it's becaue I still feel crummy, though I think I am improving. (My cough is nothing like as bad as it was even just a few days ago, which is a blessing.)

Sometimes I cringe a bit when I open my email program. Care to see what one day's worth of mail here on the bridge looks like?

Just a few days ago, some security consultants released info on a no-modchip way to boot Linux on an Xbox. Since then, other people have released a boot loader based on this information.

the release info for the loader

some more info

and slashdot has coverage of it here.

Actually, going on the date on this How To I think you were probably a bit
pessimistic (note I haven't tried this to prove it works).

Running Linux on XBox has been possible with a mod-chip for quite some time
now. The latest news is not that this is possible, but that someone has
found a way to do this without making any hardware modifications to the
XBox at all.

See here for details.

Howdy. On July 4th (xbox independence day) a vulnerability was released
that allowed linux (or bsd bu that is a different email) to run on a
non-moded xbox.

Here's a link to a Slashdot story from Sept 2002.

Linux was already running on the Xbox at that time. The Slashdot story includes a link to the Xbox Linux Project.

Your original prediction was conservative ;)

You weren't optimistic, just behind on the news. The first Linux boot to a hardware modified Xbox was either January 2003, or August 2002 depending on how strict you are on the definition of "boot". In August the kernel booted, but there was no useful user space, by January there was.

The recent activity is because we can now boot Linux on an -unmodified- Xbox, a significant difference.

As to why Microsoft doesn't want people buying Xboxs to run Linux on them, they lose a guestimated $200 per unit which is made up by game sales. If somebody buys an Xbox for the intention of running Linux, the likelihood is that there will be no games purchased.

You probably missed this story due to being sick, but a group released information of a software-only exploit last week.

It has also been mentioned on Slashdot a few times in the past month. The group was apparently trying to use the details of the exploit to blackmail MS into releasing a signed Linux boot loader. After a month of "failed negotiations", they released the details to the public.

Slashdot post

http://www.actsofgord.com/Proclamations/chapter02.html (down at the end)

So it's not a particularly authoritative source, but I'm not positive Sony loses money on the PS2 hardware sales. I haven't found a copy of the shareholder report in question to check the footnote, but the basic logic makes sense. Sony is an electronics company with a solid in-house R&D department, as well as production facilities. It would make sense for them, especially after the success of the PS1, to dump a lot of cash into the project up front (which would get recorded as Cap Ex anyway) and then make the profits back in sales.

Actually, it's apparently been done without even a mod chip. . This leads me to another topic you posted on recently; namely, web comics. Penny Arcade is usually extremely funny and had a pretty good comic here<