Gamecube Linux Port Announced, In Progress 258
NiteStar writes "A group of people from the homebrew scene and Xbox Linux have now started a new project to port Linux to the Nintendo Gamecube. A small preview version has already been released, it's a small application that draws Tux the penguin on the GameCube screen. The roadmap explains a small client will run on the Gamecube, so the 'GameCube could be used as a desktop computer, which stores its data on a server on the network. The GameCube has a CPU that is powerful enough to decode common multimedia data like MPEG-4/DivX and MP3. It can serve as a display unit for content stored on a server'."
Next Gen... (Score:5, Insightful)
But now the Xbox 2, PS3, and GameCube successor (name?) are looming, so....how about waiting til then, and starting on those immediately?
Re:Next Gen... (Score:5, Insightful)
Perhaps, so that old "obsolete" hardware continues to be "useful"? Besides, I wouldn't want to install Lunix on my Gamecube if it were brand spanking new, I'd be using it to play games.
I hope Nintendo has more decency than Microsoft (Score:1, Insightful)
When you buy a product, it should be YOURS, period, end of story. If you want to mod your Xbox into a PC, and you have the skills to do it, then you damn well ought to be able to do so. Once you pay your $175 (or whatever they're going for) for an Xbox, Microsoft should cease to have any control over what you do with it -- save voiding the warranty if you decide to take it apart and start modding it.
Put Linux on it and run MAME (Score:2, Insightful)
There's another use for it.
Re:Why? (Score:2, Insightful)
Superior hardware doesn't make the Xbox a superior platform. If so, sales would have been much higher. So far, the Xbox is the 3rd console and it's share in the gamingmarket is decreasing (in percentages).
Re:Next Gen... (Score:3, Insightful)
And this will be useful because? (Score:3, Insightful)
Which means that you would have to boot up the GC like you normally would, load PSO, do the exploit-thingy and then begin streaming Linux to the console from your PC/server/whatever via the Broadband Adapter. Am I the only one who thinks this is way to big of a hassle?
I mean, Linux on the Dreamcast was just a matter of throwing in a DC-Linux cd and hitting the power button. By comparison, this GameCube hack is cumbersome, to put it mildly. Why not just buy an Xbox and screw Microsoft over?
Its alivee (Score:3, Insightful)
The linux port should help widen the gamecube's appeal to more people
Re:My gamecube (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:My gamecube (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:more wasted work (Score:4, Insightful)
The GC is small, runs quietly, and has decent audio and video outputs. It's already sitting in my living room, where my large TV and sound system are. If, in addition to games, it can be used to play media that lives on my network then so much the better!
I can think of othere uses. RSS feed displayer, anyone? :-)
-- MG
Re:My gamecube (Score:2, Insightful)
The Eternal Answer (Score:3, Insightful)
This will add a lot of functionality to an aging piece of hardware. Why go out and build/buy a media center when you can just port linux onto an old Gamecube?
Re:Excellent point (WHA?!) (Score:3, Insightful)
'Scuse me? Show me where modding an Xbox/PS2 has affected any revenue stream. It is a niche, hobbyist thing to do. If some hobbyist can out perform an entire software team in writing an application or game, then the company deserves to lose revenue.
If I purchase a piece of hardware, the ONLY thing a manufacturer should be able to do is void my warranty if I decide to hack it. Period. Hackers are not competition for big companies. Now maybe a company could be worried that the competition will leverage a hack to gain some insight into how they do things, but that would be pretty fruitless. After all, once a console hits the market, it doesn't do much good to figure out what it does because the company that released it is probably already working on the next generation. Heck, I am sure companies do their own hacking on competitors products, and they are probably much better at it than the hobbyist.
Re:Next Gen... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Next Gen... (Score:4, Insightful)
What the hell was the point in porting UNIX to a x86 architechture? Isn't that that chip that was based on chips originally used to control ballistic missiles back in the 70s?
What the hell was the point of emulating windows apps on unix? You geeks whined and whined and got your own OS; why don't you get your own freakin' software, too?
What the hell was the point of
oh just fsck it.
They did it because it was there. Proprietary hardware and software are the Mt. Everests of the geek.
I, for one, look forward to my new thin-client multimedia center.
Re:Next Gen... (Score:2, Insightful)
That was Sega v. Accolade (Score:3, Insightful)
Sega's Mega Drive (called Genesis in USA) and Nintendo's Game Boy and Game Boy Advance platforms require some sort of textual or graphical logo to be present at a given address in ROM, but distributing Game Paks containing such required logo data does not infringe the console maker's trademarks or copyrights. Sega v. Accolade, 977 F2d 1510 (9th Cir. 1992) [eff.org]. Heck, even the GBA's packaging, which depicts a GBA showing a complete BIOS intro screen, makes it appear as if the logo were generated by the GBA BIOS rather than by the Game Pak.
Re:And this will be useful because? (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Next Gen... (Score:3, Insightful)
Don't be such an ass...
what I said is correct, even if the primary exploit is the online PSO trick. The usefulness of the GC-as-computer is limited mostly by the discs; otherwise you need a network connection at that hypothetical kiosk location I mentioned.