Michael Steil, the head of the XBox Linux Project, has managed to create the first Xbox program without the use of Xbox's standard development kit (SDK). The application makes the XBox LED flash and adds a penguin to the XBox start-up screen. Along with the graphics the program adds a "Xbox Linux Coming Soon" message and a link to the XBox Linux Project (XLP) web site.
According to Steil this program has been developed in such a way as to avoid any possible legal complications. For this reason the file is readily available for download from the XLP web site.
Linuxpreview is a small application, and it's the first one which shows that it is possible to write an application that has not been developed with Microsoft's SDK and does not contain any Microsoft code, comments Steil.
It would be trivial to write an application, showing a penguin logo on the screen, which has been written using Microsoft's development tools every regular Xbox game developer has access to. We cannot use this software, so it's more difficult to write software that 'does something' on top of the Xbox system software.
This new development is still limited to running in a hardware modified XBox but the aim of the project is to eventually get it to run on a Software Only basis.
The challenges of the XBox's hardware and software limitations are further discussed in Linux on XBox has a Price on its Head.
Although Microsoft have yet to comment on the efforts of the LXP, recent moves suggest that there is an ongoing attempt by MS to embrace the rogue OS (Linux). Only last week Microsoft decided to participate, for the first time, by taking a booth at this August's LinuxWorld Expo.
