Xbox Runs X, KDE, Gnome, StarOffice and Tuxracer

[Peter Motyka]

Posted by timothy on Monday September 02, @06:15PM
from the and-really-what-else-is-there dept.
freax writes "Today in the the xbox-linux mailinglist: I'm typing this into KMail using a USB keybaord (and a USB mouse) in front of the TV connected to the Xbox. ... and even StarOffice works quite fine. TuxRacer also runs (look at the new screenhots on the website), but only with one frame per second. Check out screenshots here."

http://slashdot.org/articles/02/09/02/2211237.shtml?tid=106

This is so neat, make sure to check out the screenshots.

[Stiffler]

Hell, yeah. He's using SuSE Linux  :-P

Jon

[Michael Kennedy]

Good Lord.  I wonder when they'll have a Linux port for my digital watch.   :-D

This is cool.  I read a while back that even before they go X, etc working on the XBox that Apache ran like a dream and they were able to turn the XBox in an extremely capable firewall/router/webserver.  The performance of it was outstanding.

[Guest]

It is completely irrelavent whether it runs servers, staroffice, or anything else functional... the important thing is, that it runs TUXRACER!!! and at a whopping 1FPS too... thats almost as fast as my toaster-oven runs it... :-D

[Michael Kennedy]

What version toaster oven are you running?  I overclocked mine and got 1.5 frames per second.  It helps when you're playing while you wait for breakfast.

(OK, OK, I'm now completely off topic.  Just ignore me when i do this.)

[William Grim]

Hey hey!  Let's all be serious again and stop kidding around about toaster ovens.

I mean, if you really know what you're doing, you can get 3 FPS out of them.

[Michael Kennedy]

Hey hey! Let's all be serious again and stop kidding around about toaster ovens.

I mean, if you really know what you're doing, you can get 3 FPS out of them.

Yeah, but only by using ATI's Quake3 modifed drivers.

[Stiffler]

*Scratches head* *Ponders: wtf*
*looks confused*
Toster ovens!?!  :-?  ATI Drivers for a toster oven!?!

Jon

[Michael Kennedy]

OK, that one might have needed a bit of explaining.

http://www.tech-report.com/etc/2001q4/radeon-q3/index.x?pg=1

Basically, on the ATI Radeon 7500/8500 the drivers were "tweaked" to perform better in Quake 3.  More FPS, but lower quality.  They "tweaked" the drivers to beat NVidia's cards in benchmarks because they know that Q3 was going to be the standard that they'd be graded with.

Most people said they didn't "tweak", but rather "cheated" to get better scores.  Kinda funny story if you ask me.

And, uh, same deal with the toaster, too.

[Ryan Lintker]

Once I got my toaster running fairly well, I took my old athlon processor and installed it in the bottom of an old deep fryer.  Now I can play solitaire and cook french fries in under 2 minutes.  Nothing like clogging the arteries while clearing the mind.

[Stiffler]

If y'all want better performance with your Toster ovens, Overclock your house! That link leads to someone that did.

Jon

[Chris Swingler]

But seriously, you have to consider the implications of one of the leading video gaming systems of our day being transformed into a clandestine computer.  A little more hacking, maybe some 3rd party nVidia graphics drives (or possibly 1st party, nVidia isn't exactly happy with Microsoft or the Xbox right now), and we could have a computer that usually retails for $1000+ for only $300!  ($200 system plus $100 mods).   Plus, nothing pisses Bill Gates off more than something going open-source.  Especially if it's one of quote-unquote "his" creations

But still, a TV isn't exactly hi-res, I'm not sure how long I could stand typing a term paper at 640*480 with serious scanlines....

--Beanie