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Old 08-15-2003, 05:41 AM   #1
browny_amiga
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XBox, Linux Server sponsored by Microsoft ;-)


My friends, today I came up with the most delicious thing for my linux loving M$ hating mind:

Microsoft is making so much money with their monopoly, they are drowning in it, that they should/must give us some.

How?

The following proposal:

Somebody of us ought to go into business, buying 100 xboxes, very cheap per unit, putting linux on it, clustering them and then offer rendering capacity for movie studios at groudbreaking cheap rates.
100 x 0.7 GHz CPU power is 70 GHz calculation power.
No other rendering-company could keep up with such low cost for high power offerings, so more and more companies would switch their linux rendering facilities to xboxes.

Benefit:
All these linux xbox servers would be super cheap, probably the cheapest superpcomputer.

The delicious thing is that Microsoft is already making a huge loss on the XBox in order to keep up with the PS2 and (xbox is technically superior then the PS2, and of course also more expensive) they are selling their games so expensive, so they cover the loses they made by making the xbox cheaper.
An linux Xbox will not run one game ever, so they loss does never get covered.
Hurts Microsoft, helps linux, the company that uses it in this way AND it is hillarious because you would go with the tagline on your webpage:

"Sponsored and provided by Microsoft. Microsoft is now supporting Linux, is offering great discounts for running Linux on their XBox." and/or "It was revealed by a Microsoft Spokesman that the name was actually chosen with the X of Linux/Unix in mind" and/or
"...provided by our friendly partner Microsoft"
and that would not be a partnership that M$ has entered into freely. No, they were **dragged** into it and they are not friendly/happy about it ;-)

This way, the huge cashpile they built up with their monopoly is benefitting a good cause to benefit poor and business smart penguins. ;-)
 
Old 08-15-2003, 12:18 PM   #2
fsu_slacker
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Quote:
Originally posted by browny_amiga
[BSomebody of us ought to go into business, buying 100 xboxes, very cheap per unit, putting linux on it, clustering them and then offer rendering capacity for movie studios at groudbreaking cheap rates.
100 x 0.7 GHz CPU power is 70 GHz calculation power.
No other rendering-company could keep up with such low cost for high power offerings, so more and more companies would switch their linux rendering facilities to xboxes.
[/B]
Fun idea, but think about what you're saying. It's not a simple task to install Linux on 100 xboxes and cluster them together, assuming you can even do that. (aside from the Seti style distributed computing, which I don't think wouldn't really work that well for rendering, I've never heard of clustering xboxes... anyone have any comments to back me up or refute me on this?)

Also, 100 x $150 + 100 x $35 (for the necessary mod chips) comes to $18500, plus whatever custom mods you'd need to cluster them together, mods to add better user input (S-types would suck a$$ for heavy-duty rendering), and the fact that people aren't going to put all that work in for free just to sell it to a movie studio. That's getting into some pretty big money, considering that studios survive just fine with the computing power they already have.

You also need to consider patents and copyrights. It'd be very shaky legal ground to sell modded xboxes like that for commercial use, considering that none of this is or will ever be endorsed by Microsoft. You definitely wouldn't be able to post that message on the web page... that's just begging for a lawsuit.

I can only hope from the smileys that you're not being serious, but nevertheless the fact remains that it'd never work. BTW, not to bitch at you, just an observation, that this would have been better suited in the general discussions forum.
 
Old 08-26-2003, 10:37 AM   #3
browny_amiga
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Talking

Quote:
Originally posted by fsu_slacker
Fun idea, but think about what you're saying. It's not a simple task to install Linux on 100 xboxes and cluster them together, assuming you can even do that. (aside from the Seti style distributed computing, which I don't think wouldn't really work that well for rendering, I've never heard of clustering xboxes... anyone have any comments to back me up or refute me on this?)

Also, 100 x $150 + 100 x $35 (for the necessary mod chips) comes to $18500, plus whatever custom mods you'd need to cluster them together, mods to add better user input (S-types would suck a$$ for heavy-duty rendering), and the fact that people aren't going to put all that work in for free just to sell it to a movie studio. That's getting into some pretty big money, considering that studios survive just fine with the computing power they already have.

You also need to consider patents and copyrights. It'd be very shaky legal ground to sell modded xboxes like that for commercial use, considering that none of this is or will ever be endorsed by Microsoft. You definitely wouldn't be able to post that message on the web page... that's just begging for a lawsuit.

I can only hope from the smileys that you're not being serious, but nevertheless the fact remains that it'd never work. BTW, not to bitch at you, just an observation, that this would have been better suited in the general discussions forum.
Well, we cannot put everything in the general forum, can we? I think this is clearly a hardware issue.

To your comment:
I am amazed that I received ONLY ONE comment, from so many view. Seems that nobody seems the wit and fun in the idea. Everybody already thought of it or nobody thinks that it has merrit?

The clustering I am talking about is beowolf type, which I don't know much neither, but it is supposed to work, even with lowend machines. also, you don't SELL the boxes, you only rent out the calculation power. Of course you cannot sell moded boxes, that is surely against the law. But use them? The DMCA (digital milenium copyright act) would probably bite you in the ass in the US for circumventing the access protection with a mod chip, but there is supposed to be a way without any mods.
20000$ for this high calculation power is also pretty cheap (must be, M$ is making loss on the boxes, just to push them into the market). Additional CPU power could be gained out of using the Graphics Chip to computer too (this is not available so far I guess)

Saying the the movies studios survive with the calculation power they got already, i.e. don't need more or better would be like saying that there would not be a market for Cars that cost only 900$ and do the same as full blown ones. Good products/services always have a chance because "they are better/cheaper".

As said before, the boxes would not be sold.
But am I the only one that loves the idea of M$ unvoluntary supporting Linux with their hardware and making loss on it (putting their monopoly $ into it)?

It is the absolut perversion for them to see linux run on their beloved game-console.

Besides, I would be a nice exertion of your rights to do with an object as you please, when you bought it. They want to impose the same nonsense that they do with software "you don't own it, you cannot sell it...".
How can that be?

As long as you are not copying it and selling it for profit, who says that you should not completely own an object after your bought it?
Laws are kind of shifting in the US as it seems to me, in favor of big business and on the expense of little joe consumer.
Let's hope some new administration power will spit redmond in 3, and let the fresh wind of competition in again.
 
Old 01-13-2007, 11:26 PM   #4
supertunaman
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This is actually a really good idea... I want to do this! This would earn money AND bragging rights!
 
Old 01-14-2007, 06:22 AM   #5
V!NCENT
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Ahw man this idea is too good to be true Just for the sake of using xbox360's for desktop use. The only problem is, of course, using very ugly hacks to get it all fully working well.
 
Old 01-14-2007, 07:07 AM   #6
The Headacher
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How can a hack that costs M$ money be ugly ? I bet the xbox360 is really loosing MS money nowadays. It's a lot of box for few bux.

If I had an Xbox360 you can bet I'd try to run linux on it. Why? Because that's what geeks do innit?
 
Old 01-15-2007, 12:57 PM   #7
V!NCENT
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Quote:
Originally Posted by The Headacher
How can a hack that costs M$ money be ugly
Well ofcourse some guys are working on getting it done. I found this on their wiki:
Quote:
I met someone on the IRC the other day who told me the following:

* The flash is encrypted with a per-box key
* The key is stored inside the CPU
* The boot ROM is stored inside the CPU
* Also inside the CPU is a hypervisor that verifies the running state of the kernel, making sure there is no modification (RAM checksums), else the Xbox360 panics and blows up!
*

The CPU contains RAM inside of it to store the checksums (This is just a speculation by TheSpecialist at the Xbox-Scene Forums)
* All interrupt/exception handling is done by the hypervisor
* All code runs in kernel mode
* The emulator for first generation games can be updated via an official Microsoft download burned to CD by the user, though the CDs' content will be encrypted and signed with public key cryptography.

(The following seems to stem from a thread on xbox-scene.com and is, as yet, not independently verified)

The bios chip contains a random number. on the very first start up, the system uses this number to generate an encryption code which it writes to every component of the unit, it then erases the chip. from then on startup is not assisted by the bios and the data is encrypted from the moment the unit is turned on. so this encryption is used in every exposed data passage in the console to prevent us cracking the x360 like we did the original one (by evesdroping on the startup commands).

ms originaly was leaving the chips in place and having the locking sequence run when you first start it up at home. but someone could modify the system before the first startup, so ms now starts up the system at the factory, then removes the chip. this is why some units have the chip while others do not.

to replace the drive, a override code must be inserted in the bios chip slot and a boot up disc must be used. the 2 of these in unison are used to start up the console without encryption in "safe mode". this mode is usefull for changing the codes to do things like replace a dvd drive and lock it to the console.

(/not independently verified)
 
  


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