New uses for old Xboxes
p2p news view / p2pnet:- My son Max will be thirteen in December and he wants an Xbox 360. I know that other games consoles are available, and I`m pretty agnostic about such things since I am not at all a serious games player, but the Xbox has been his platform of choice for the last three years and he`s desperate to upgrade.
Having agreed that it can be a combined birthday and Christmas present, the struggle is now on to find a shop that has any pre-order stock available, but I`m willing to be persistent. It also helps that he`s happy to pay for games out of his savings.
I don`t see anything wrong in wanting a new and improved games platform I`ve been known to buy myself the occasional new computer from time to time. But it`s clear that once a shiny new system is in place below the TV the old one is unlikely to be used again, and this bothers me.
First it will go into the office, then it will be lost under a pile of paper or boxes. Eventually it might get handed down to a cousin or other relative, but they won`t play it very much.
Max won`t be alone in dumping his old console. I`d imagine that most sales of the new system are going to be upgrades, so there will be millions of unwanted Xboxes around the world by the end of the year.
And when Sony release the PlayStation 3 next year the same thing is going to happen with PlayStation 2.
There is a real danger that millions of them will end up either unused or, worse, being dumped. We`re increasingly being prompted to pass our unwanted PCs but as far as I can see there aren`t any console recycling schemes.
Yet both the Xbox and the Playstation 2 are just computers, and although they are shipped as dedicated games systems they can do other things. Sony provides an official Linux for the PlayStation 2, based on the Red Hat kernel, and it comes with a collection of libraries to let games developers use the specialised graphics hardware that makes it such a good gaming platform. You get a hard drive to fit into the console, a network card, keyboard and mouse and of course the software, on DVD.
There are Linuxes for the Xbox too, but they are unofficial and using them will void your warranty and means you can`t use Xbox Live.
You can plug both systems into a real computer monitor rather than a TV, as long as you use a `sync on green` monitor, so you don`t to put up woth poor resolution, fuzzy fonts and irritating flicker.
It seems obvious that the best thing to do with all the unwanted consoles is turn them into real computers and send them to countries that need them.
There`s only one small problem with this scheme: doing it properly is illegal thanks to laws which protect what are called `technological protection measures` like hardware-based security and DVD encryption.
The official Sony Linux for the PlayStation 2 includes copy protection that won`t let you read CDs or DVDs you burn yourself, so you need to fit an illegal modification chip if you want to do this. It`s the same with the Xbox you can get Linux running with a software-only fix, but the full system really needs changes to the hardware.
Sony and Microsoft have good reasons not to want people to mess with their hardware in markets where they make vast amounts of money selling games, and even though I would argue against laws that stop owners from doing whatever they want with hardware they actually own, I can appreciate both sides of the argument.
But when a games machine has reached the end of its useful life we shouldn`t have to junk it just because the original manufacturer objects to turning it into something useful.
Creative Commons is a nonprofit organisation that is trying to find new ways to encourage creativity and sharing within the framework of existing copyright law. Last year they published a special version of their license that allows people in developing nations, as listed by the United Nations, to use works freely while limiting their commercial exploitation in developed countries.
It`s an excellent idea, because it means that I can, for example, let newspapers in Bangladesh reuse my articles without paying, but insist that German publications cough up.
And it can be applied to any copyrightable work, including computer programs.
So why don`t Microsoft, Sony and the other console manufacturers make it easy to turn their games systems into useful general purpose computers and announce that they are happy to have the hardware modified and new software installed, provided the resulting systems are used outside the developed world?
A few million extra computers could make a real difference in schools and colleges in Africa or elsewhere, and I`d like to think that Max`s old Xbox was helping someone else`s child get online and change their life.
Perhaps Microsoft can celebrate their thirtieth year in business by opening up their hardware to the developing world and encouraging all of us who go out and buy their new games system to bring our old ones in for legal modification. And if they are really concerned about putting lots of Linux computers into circulation, they could even offer a free Windows license for every old Xbox.
Bill Thompson – andfinally.com
[Thompson is a UK-based writer and broadcaster.]
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October 1st, 2005 at 8:27 pm
Yes, I agree with you. Maybe if someone with push at Microsoft was given this idea. They could start a recycle program to where they would be the ones moding there old systems. After turning them into Microsoft or Sony, use it as a tax write off.
Vapour
October 1st, 2005 at 10:49 pm
It’s a nice idea, but you know microsoft, and sony are to greedy to do something like that.
October 2nd, 2005 at 5:02 am
Dude, your isolated in the UK…most major US cities
are VERY poor…and could use these. Your articel sounds like the old tired argument from the left…how evil big companies dont care….
October 2nd, 2005 at 10:03 am
Don’t you just love it when some dumb American kid thinks that the UK is isolated. I can tell you that most people in the UK are more in touch with what goes on worldwide than 70% of US teenagers and pre-30’s people, who don’t even realise that there is a world past their own isolated borders of the United States.
And if you want to bring politics into it by accusing this man of being from the left, then you should get your head out of Bush’s ass and realise that yes a good amount of people in the US are very poor and the US government could be spending more time helping the poor instead of financing stupid little wars over oil, being chummy with money-grabbing corperations like the record companies, pharmacutical corperations and other fat-cats. But there are places that are poor not because they choose to be, but because no matter what they do, they in essence, due to their corrupt leaders, armies, climates, enviroment, etc still force them to live in less advanced state of civilisation.