If you own an XBox, you will not necessarily have to wait for Microsoft to begin offering XBox Live in order to get your console online. If your console already carries a modification chip and if you are willing to put in some effort, the console can act as a simple Web server running on the Linux operating system.
According to the XBox Linux Project they have just made available the first full release of a clean 1MByte BIOS implementation for the Xbox, which actually contains and boots a 2.4.18 Linux Kernel, and brings up the network and some applications like a small webserver, etc.
The BIOS can either be executed from the motherboard or LPC boot flash, or from a specially constructed CD, which runs an unsigned XBE that copies the BIOS into RAM and starts running it as if it was a warm boot. (So for the CD method, you must have a mod installed allowing unsigned code to be run.)
Yes, the box lights up on the network and can be telnetted into. All Microsoft 'innovations' (ie, restrictions) have been burnt away. The box is still 0wned, but now its 0wned by YOU.
Members of the XBox Linux Project claim that the kernel is able to boot certain types of off-the-shelf hard drives connected to the Xbox, but this is not done by default. Drivers for sound and USB devices such as keyboards have also been released. The software does not yet support video.
As members of the poject have constantly stressed the aim of their effort is not to aid piracy in any way but rather to offer owners of the XBox freedom to use their console to the best of its ability.
In its current form, the project seems to be well protected under the reverse engineering clause in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which allows engineers to circumvent copy-protection software in order to allow computer programs to interoperate.
