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Comment by gymbeaux | Hacker News Reader

I don’t think Xbox Dev Mode is really worth a damn. You can sideload apps but it’s not a vector for piracy or running Windows or Linux.

PS3 Linux was about as useless as PS2 Linux, because the PS3 had only 256MB of RAM. I put Ubuntu Server on one and used it as a Squid proxy server to route P2P traffic through to the university’s college of computing since P2P was blocked in the dorms. For some stupid reason I totally got away with it. PS3 running in one of the research labs 24/7 routing traffic all day.

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> You can sideload apps but it’s not a vector for piracy or running Windows or Linux.

Rephrasing:

> You can sideload apps so it's not a vector for piracy

Most of the piracy scene depends on hackers figuring out how to break security so that they can run [SWEET DEMOS](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8JaG6hQVbA) and homebrew apps on it. By saying "yeah mate here, toggle some settings, pay $90, and we'll even help you break the seal" it completely eliminates the drive that most experienced attackers have to actually attack it.

From what I understand there's an informal bounty among the Xbox and Hyper-V teams that increases on a regular basis for unsigned executables on the Xbox One platform.

I don't think ps2 and ps3 linux were intended to be used, ever. From what i can tell the only reason it existed at all was to allow sony to import it as a computer rather than a game console, which has higher tariffs imposed.

>I don’t think Xbox Dev Mode is really worth a damn. You can sideload apps but it’s not a vector for piracy

That's the point

The person I’m replying to make it sound like Xbox Dev Mode came about because Microsoft was tired of trying to keep hackers out, but the reality is Microsoft has kept hackers out. You can’t jailbreak an Xbox One.

yet, valid for january, 2023

If I recall correctly, Microsoft was about to cripple down the Dev Mode, what caused in the community, what led to increased interest in hacking X1, what made MS back off on their decision, after what the discussions quieten down.

I won't claim Dev Mode is their solution to hacker, but there seems to be some correlation.

I’m not sure why crippling a niche feature would drive people to try to jailbreak the Xbox One. It really is a useless feature unless you are developing an app/game for the Xbox One- then you won’t have to spend however much on a dev kit.

I believe indora has already said why under your initial comment:

>Most of the piracy scene depends on hackers figuring out how to break security so that they can run [SWEET DEMOS](...) and homebrew apps on it

That's definitely the experience I have with modding scene; piracy is rarely the primary goal. Yes, Dev Mode is a niche feature, but it's a feature appealing to the hacker's niche.

Yeah the only issue is that dev mode doesn’t enable would-be hackers to do any of that stuff.

It's literally what it's for though?

And from what I see, stuff like RetroArch can be run on normal console even without Dev Mode nowadays. Heck, you can play NES games directly in Edge browser without any shenanigans.

Things you could do on a jailbroken PS3 or JTAG'd Xbox 360 (besides playing pirated games) != things you can do on an Xbox One with dev mode enabled, including but not limited to: running Linux; viewing and controlling thermal performance of the console; modding games/enabling cheats; theming the UI; playing game discs made for a different region (e.g. PAL); backup game save files (I think this is a given on today's consoles but it was more restrictive back in the day).

Of course it doesn't give you as much power as a jailbreak would, but it gives just enough power to make putting the effort into hacking the console not worth it.

I just don't think there was really anyone who was putting effort into hacking the Xbox One just because they wanted the feature that they now get out of the box- sideloading/running unsigned code in a VERY sandboxed environment that can't run retail versions of games.

The idea was for gamers to get a feeling what it meant to be a game developer, and as former PS2Linux user, having so many instead trying to make a PC out of Playstation is what killed the fun for Sony.

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