Squeak Xbox port

Jeffrey T. Read bitwize at snet.net
Wed Apr 2 06:30:14 UTC 2003


On Tue, Apr 01, 2003 at 10:01:07PM -0500, Swan, Dean wrote:
> All they're doing is replacing the default Microsoft BIOS ROM with their own FLASH, and from that point on it's basically a PC.  Make a bootable Linux CD, and that's about the end of the story.
> 
> Keep in mind that the poster wasn't talking about Squeak booting on an un-hacked X Box.  That would require someone to pay the X Box tax to Microsoft, but it's still technically feasible.  I suspect (but I don't know for sure) that most X Box games run on some version of WinCE for x86.
> 

A stripped-down Windows NT kernel actually, but yes. An X-Box Squeak port would probably require not that much change-over from the Win32 port. Of course, it would have to be DirectX-based, including the 3D stuff (a conversion of B3D from "niche" OpenGL to "industry standard" Direct3D would be in order, for instance).

Squeak will never be legitimate on the X-Box because Microsoft would never approve of an open source programming environment existing on its closed console. The X-Box looks like it's Microsoft's vision for computing in the new millennium: The PC becomes a closed platform (with help from Palladium), with Microsoft as the gatekeeper. A future where Squeak (and Linux, and other cool things) is ousted from the Dells and Gateways of the world is now plausible (but still seems unlikely).

Oh, well, there's always the PS2 Linux kit...

-- 
Jeff Read <bitwize at snet.net>



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