Re: SuperH port
Hi Jeff,
Jeff Noxon wrote:
> Is the Sega Dreamcast usable as a "regular" computer? I.e., would it
> make a workable Linux system as an X-terminal or something? That sounds
> interesting to me.
So far, the possibility is almost ZERO, as we could not expect to get
any hardware information at this time. (SEGA uses a variant of
WindowsCE as it's operating system, by the way.)
SEGA already has made the contracts between the software companies who
develop the video game software on Dreamcast, with
non-disclosure-agreement.
For SEGA, it is difficult to flip the convention/strategy of video
game industry suddenly, and it is almost impossible to open the
information to the free software community, because it might cause
some mess-up, especially for legal issues. In short, (IMNSHO) it is
difficult for video game industly to change the situation by
themselves.
Instead, how about open the door by ourselves to them, at first? That
is, we --- free software community --- let them bring free software
(or, Open Source Solution, whatever they like) to them for evaluation.
Situation is changing. You may know that many video game companies
already use GNU software as thier development tool. There's many
people among them who have interests. If we saw them Debian GNU/Linux
running on SuperH, they would change their mind, and be positive
to use it.
To avoid chicken-and-egg problem (say, "we can't do any development
because of no-hardware information" vs. "we can't open any hardware
information because of no-good demonstration"), it is quite good thing
to begin real distribution work.
Regards,
--
Niibe Yutaka
Tresidder Networks
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