Thursday, July 10, 2003
Xbox as low-cost PC?
The New York Times is carrying an interesting story today on the possibility of using the xbox as a sub-$200 PC (after some tinkering), running on Linux. Certainly not what Microsoft had in mind, I am sure. The article also goes into copyright issues under the DMCA 1998 Act.
The Xbox is a particularly attractive target for hackers because while it is essentially a standard PC modified to do only a few things, like play Xbox games, it is much cheaper than a PC. It is like an economy car modified to follow only a few roads - but one potentially as powerful as a far more expensive model. In the Xbox, that power comes in the form of a 733-megahertz Intel processor, comparable to a midrange personal computer, and sophisticated graphics and audio systems. Its limited operating system, based on a version of Windows, can be used by a programmer to run simple software like a music player - or the machine can run a new operating system altogether, namely Linux.
In a sense, Xbox hackers are exploiting Microsoft's business model, which is to sell Xbox hardware at a loss (to build penetration of the system) and make the money back on royalties from the sale of Xbox software. A PC manufacturer like Dell, meanwhile, has to recoup its costs and generate a profit from the initial sale.
I hope the folks interested in bringing computing costs down, especially in developing countries, have taken note of the xbox possibility. How much of a possibility it represents, I am not really sure, but a sub-$200 PC running a 733 MHz processor sounds good to me.
The Xbox is a particularly attractive target for hackers because while it is essentially a standard PC modified to do only a few things, like play Xbox games, it is much cheaper than a PC. It is like an economy car modified to follow only a few roads - but one potentially as powerful as a far more expensive model. In the Xbox, that power comes in the form of a 733-megahertz Intel processor, comparable to a midrange personal computer, and sophisticated graphics and audio systems. Its limited operating system, based on a version of Windows, can be used by a programmer to run simple software like a music player - or the machine can run a new operating system altogether, namely Linux.
In a sense, Xbox hackers are exploiting Microsoft's business model, which is to sell Xbox hardware at a loss (to build penetration of the system) and make the money back on royalties from the sale of Xbox software. A PC manufacturer like Dell, meanwhile, has to recoup its costs and generate a profit from the initial sale.
I hope the folks interested in bringing computing costs down, especially in developing countries, have taken note of the xbox possibility. How much of a possibility it represents, I am not really sure, but a sub-$200 PC running a 733 MHz processor sounds good to me.
