I am very surprised that a Google Search: haXbox only gets three hits, only one of which seems to refer to a genuine use of the word - it's a beverage control (i.e. drinks dispensing) product. Given so few hits it's not surprising that a Google Search: haXboxers gets no hits.

I am seriously giving some thought to some future student projects that would look at the possibility of using the Xbox as a general computing engine. Hence the tentative project title - haxBox. The one concern I have is the question of how protective Microsoft is about technical details of the Xbox and, if they are very protective, how aggressive they would be in pursuing that protection.

I've not researched the issue at all and have no idea of the technical or legal issues that may arise. The project(s) would be totally above board as the emphasis is on 'converting' the Xbox to be a general compute machine rather than as a games machine.

However, given the fact that Microsoft loses money on the sale of each Xbox - and hopes to recoup this loss by the sale of games - I suspect they'd be anxious to make sure that 'converted' consoles don't appear.

But is there anything Micrsoft could do if the 'conversion' is simply achieved by loading software off a CD-ROM? Corollary: Microsoft has no comeback on people that boot their PC into Linux? It's an interesting question.

Also noteworthy is bunnie's adventures hacking the XBOX

[Update: Google Search: haxXbox gets no hits so I think I'll be using this as my project title.]