steambox coming out what does this mean (Ubuntu)

[Support@MixVibes]

Steambox is going to where is Apple : closed system.
The more you get closed, the more you're stable and easy to maintain.

Open system :
if you have to support NT4 / Windows 98 / Millenium / 2000 / XP / Vista / Seven / W8 or even Android 1.x / 2.x / 4.x on thousands of devices/brands.
A bit hard to do...

Closed system :
only one OS but a few devices (iOS) and still the same brand, it's more easier, but not so...

Embedded system :
the same OS on the same hardware for everyone (gaming console) : ideal world.

[Blackbrook]

Ffrom what I have heard and read (source unfortunately only in german) you should be able to install win or linux on it. But until there is an official release everything is just rumours!

I agree with you support, it is easy to maintain, but I doubt Valve will go that way. For them this is a computer, no console - maybe this is the difference. Though some may say that an Xbox360 is nothing else but a small computer you can put below your TV

[MusicMeister]

The original XBox was a computer - the 360, not so much.

Without too much hacking at all you could get Linux on an Xbox. In fact, because they didn't modify the hardware that much from a typical computer, the Xbox was just a little too easily hackable and it put a big of a black eye on Microsoft's console for a while.

And with 360 supporting DVD-HD instead of Blu-Ray, they made the wrong call on that front as well.

All that aside, while the Steambox is designed to be a competing game console, there isn't anything wrong with taking a look at a similar concept for a full on DVS based setup.

For example, the empeg was an AWESOME project.

http://www.empeg.com/

It was a Linux based car stereo and if Diamond Multimedia hadn't bought the company and then closed down production I suspect it would be the basis of a LOT of car stereos today.

But in the end, you'll have to hack the Steambox to make it usable for a DVS. I'd love to see something come out... but right now the closest you can likely get would be a Mac Mini or something similar. With Bootcamp you can boot to windows and you can easily shutdown much of the 'extraneous' services - including Explorer - and just use the DVS itself as the OS interface. This is an old trick we used to use for kiosks where you would actually boot the machine using Internet Explorer as the GUI for the entire operating system.

Although, Stanton's new SCS4DJ is pretty close... and with the move to the Nexus hardware on Pioneer - it's pushing the limits as well.

[Hannes]

I think you should team up with some pc-vendor and sell a dedicated and optimized machine for like 500$.

but not for 1500$ like it was with final scratch

[BennyB]

Mac Mini - run Cross on it... it runs on MAC?

Well no, run Windows on it, and DVS:D

MusicMeister - F***Logic

[Blackbrook]

the idea of Linux [... is to] be individual

That's Linux - you could not have described it better!!!!

Try to change a destop environment in Windows - you can't, in Linux it can be easily done. Why? Because the Linux programmers in general prefer to be individual. Therefore almost every Linux installation is unique (except those who are satisfied with out-of-the-box installations). I for example startet with Fedora 17 and Gnome3 for testing. After a while I went back to XFCE and this is where I am now. If there is something new I can use it and install it, try it and see if I like it. Individuality is the key aim in Linux.

And even this reason makes it hard for Linux to become popular because drivers might fail due to different configurations. As support has already written closed systems are best to maintain while open system like Linux are the hell for developers. But this should not hold them back from programing proper drivers, very often it is just lazyness and the fact that the userbase is too small - very often a combination of both.

Thanks for clarifying that Kevin haha

[MusicMeister]

Mac Mini - run Cross on it... it runs on Mac?

Well no, run Windows on it, and DVS:D

MusicMeister - F***Logic

The point was to bypass a large part of the core of the operating system creating a DVS that actually runs as the window environment.

In other words, you can set it up so that Cross is actually the UI environment itself - no explorer.exe.

So, yes, you CAN run a custom window environment in Windows.

http://www.askvg.com/how-to-apply-and-s ... n-windows/

The size and limited variations is the reason I picked a Mac Mini. And I'm not sure how to bypass the entire windows UI in OS X. However, I've done it in windows before.

[dj_cross_fade]

Actually...

Linux is a unique product designed to provide an environment similar to unix, but isn't Unix.

Mac OS X is actually based on NeXTSTEP which has some underpinnings based on the FreeBSD and NetBSD. NeXTSTEP was NeXT's OS and was later called OPENSTEP. When Jobs went back to Apple and Apple later bought Next - they used that as the basis for their next OS (OS X).

The Darwin core of OS X is also used in iOS devices.

i did not know that

[Support@MixVibes]

After being Red Hat at the end of the 90s, I went to Ubuntu arround version 8 (or 7) then Xubuntu and now Lubuntu (LXDE -> XFCE).

The fact that each Linux is so unique is what is hanging them imo from the success. Ubuntu tried to do it and see how all the real linux lovers are bashing it !
I won't say I know Linux because I'm using whatever-buntu but I do using Linux, (or some sort of) and on a daily basis (@home !).

Someone talk about some audio distribution, now there are 4 or 5 of them out there ! Why not stay with only one ? because everyone as his own opinion on what it should be, and if there is not a leader saying "we will do that and nothing else" then you won't see the end of the project.

Android was nearly at the same point, fortunately, Google is time to time doing the reference product (Nexus) so people know what it should be and understand what is different.

[Blackbrook]

I can't agree more! Did and do exactly the same as you support!