Linux on XBox

What a strange thing. While the warriors of Open Source seek to break the monopoly Microsoft has enjoyed on Operating systems for far too long, a group of talented programmers are making Open Source Linux run on the X-Box.

If nothing else, it is a recommendation for Microsoft as a producer of fine hardware worth such an interesting effort.

Or is this anti-Microsoft grandstanding? Microsoft have no monopoly when it goes to games consoles.

Have they developed a linux 2 kernal to run the Playstation/2 any better?

And tomorrow is the last day of free upgrades from MS ever. Now you have to pay them whatever they do.

Must enquire if they still charge for Xenix support - Xenix was a lesser version of Unix that Microsoft released a while before anyone heard of Linux.

Xenix was not a bad system, just like Linux whatout the GUI or any networking probably, but this was in the early 90's - before Windows 3.11 become that dominant. DR DOS was about as well, which was Digital better version of MS DOS.

Other Unix's at the time were all curses library dumb terminal drivers, although some workstations were about, but these were mega bucks.

What can we learn from the evolution of computer languages and operating systems? There is money to be made. The alchemists have found a way to sell the same old iron with different shades of gold paint. The wheel may be reinvented, so long as it is actually circular, not much else is as important. Except maybe its weight and size. Which is where most Operating Systems fall apart.

Why the world has not adopted BEOS is a reflection of how we have not understood the essentials of technology. This slender useful OS does everything we want on the web and office wise for a fraction of the price of windows, and it is a very small Operating System which runs very very fast. And never crashes.

The marketing guys told us it was for high powered designers and we kept using crashy Windows because everyone else was.

Anybody who does not at least try Operating System alternatives now is wasting money for their business.

In this discussion, the Linux and Windows camps seems severely divided. Why don't they just all fess up and realize that both operating systems have their advantages.

Reliance on Windows obviously is becoming more expensive in Microsoft's grande solution to overuse of its weaknesses in the internet and security arena since their OS was designed to be friendly to consumers rather than ideal for business development purposes. Microsoft have invented a different set of wheels which have their own strengths.

I hope they continue. The GPL is really how the rest of the world has reacted. We want superior software and Linux is one such platform. IBM failed with OS/2 by providing a superior computing solution to Windows with not real desktop. Linux provides a vastly superior desktop but it is a more technical product (but can be turnkey configured for the non-technical user to a greater degree than Windows!)

Both have accidents. Both have secuity holes. Windows probably has more.
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Microsoft buys in Arcot Systems and effectively starts to compete with PayPal.

In a move heralded as what online shoppers will finally accept, Microsoft patches together three components.

For one you get the Passport security (complete with its older RSA technology) and its 14 million users, interfaced with credit card clearance.

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