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A longtime Microsoft Corp opponent has emerged as the mystery backer and mastermind behind a contest that offers $200,000 to anyone who successfully hacks into the software giant's Xbox (news - web sites) video game console, a top technology news Web Site reported.
Michael Robertson, a former dot-com entrepreneur and now chief executive of U.S. software company Lindows.com, revealed himself as the anonymous donor and contest's creator in an interview on Thursday with CNET News.com.
His identity was first revealed on SourceForge, a site where developers congregate to share tips on developing so-called open-source software projects.
A Microsoft spokeswoman in London declined to comment on Robertson's bounty. No one could be immediately reached at Lindows.com's offices in San Diego, California.
Last July, Robertson anonymously dangled the prize money to any programmers who could successfully hack into the Xbox and adapt it so that it would run on the Linux (news - web sites) operating system, an emerging competitor to Microsoft's Windows operating system.
Robertson recently extended the deadline as no group has fully mastered the challenge.
NOT JUST FUN AND GAMES
The hack contest goes beyond a sporty challenge.
Linux proponents have long charged that its freely distributed operating system, designed and modified by mainly unaffiliated groups of programming enthusiasts, is an important step for the future development of computing devices.
They argue that the market dominance of Windows, which is the operating system on more than 90 percent of all PCs, gives Microsoft and a small number of its business partners unfair and anti-competitive control in the design of the growing number of devices that come equipped with computing capabilities.
hxxp://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030103/tc_nm/tech_videogame_bounty_dc_1
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