My miniSite

Xbox

Things that can be done with a Xbox
The Xbox system

There is of course the obvious to the statement "What you can do with a Xbox", but what I'm talking about is using a Xbox in another more practical way ;).

Technically, the Xbox is a legacy-free (i.e. not based on old technology) PC by Microsoft. The hardware under the hood is:

  • Intel Celeron 733MHz CPU
  • nVidia GeForce 3MX Graphics Accelerator
  • 64MB of RAM
  • 8GB or 10GB hard disk drive
  • DVD-ROM drive
  • 10/100 ethernet adaptor.
The core hardware is only slightly upgradable. You can get up to 512MB of RAM for it. That's more or less it - changing the hard disk to a bigger one will stop the Xbox gaming from working.

The good news is that the Xbox is very USB-expandable. You can interconnect 216 USB devices from one PC - including a few hubs, of course. You can connect anything to the Linux Xbox and it'd work a treat as a server or stand-alone PC.

How can it be more useful than for gaming?

Because of all the above, you can turn it into a regular PC - without loosing the Xbox's gaming and DVD-ing.

I'm sure it's been tactically worked out by Microsoft to be unable to run Microsoft Windows, even though Xbox is based on a shrunk-down version of the Windows 2000 kernel.

The Linux Tux

The good news is that Linux (pronounced Leen-ux) is a fantastic operating system which does work wonderfully with the hardware.

I am currently mid-project, but as soon as I can I'll put some notes up here!

Surely a £100 computer that plugs into both a TV and a monitor is a good thing. And since it runs an extremely flexible operating system, there's no limit to what you could do with it.

Useful links: