Nvidia selected for Linux based X-Box rival

What's good enough for Microsoft is good enough for Linux, if Indrema's decision to base its own games console on Nvidia's GeForce - just like Microsoft's X-Box - is anything to go by.

Little-known Indrema was formed earlier this year, and is apparently hard at work on its L600 Entertainment System, a slim-line vertical - shades of PlayStation 2 there - Linux-based games console-cum-Net access device-cum-MP3 player. It's based on a 600MHz CPU of unknown provenance and bundles 100Mbps Ethernet for ADSL connections.

Curiously, Indrema doesn't say which Nvidia processor it's going to use - but it will be a "future generation" one, at any rate. To be fair, the company isn't expecting to ship for some time - pre-production models aren't due to appear until "late summer 2000". By the time the L600 ships, Nvidia should be offering - based on its own six-month roll-out schedule - the GeForce 3. The L600's graphics engine will be built onto a daughtercard, allowing newer, more powerful 3D chips to be added later.

Some time will be needed in any case. Indrema's blurb reckons the L600 will offer "unbelievably realistic 3D games". Now Loki is doing sterling work bringing popular PC titles over to the open source OS, but Indrema is going to have to do some serious evangelism if it hopes to be able to offer a wide selection of titles for its own box.

But then Indrema's support for open source world is curious too - it seems a definite 'want our cake and we want to eat it too' merchant. Consider this, from the company's latest press release: "Indrema believes that all operating system software must evolve in an open source environment, where application software may remain proprietary."

In other words, 'we'll use all the free stuff, but keep our own material private'. So don't expect much of Indrema's own code to make it out under the GPL. ®