The debut of the Sony PS3 and Nintendo Wii was both a success and debacle, including long lines of patient fans and armed robbery. In just over a week, Nintendo has sold 600,000 units against Sony's 400,000 in the gaming console market. The company has targeted global sales of four million Wiis by the end of the year, compared to Sony's plan to sell one million PS3s. By comparison, over the past year, Microsoft has shipped six million Xbox 360s. Nintendo has banked on recapturing the console market with its innovative motion sensitive controller and the fact that its unit costs approximately half that of a PS3. Sony has bet the future on the PS3, despite the manufacturing loss incurred from producing it.

Amazingly, enthusiasts have already sought the ability to run Linux on their consoles even though the systems have only been in the hands of consumers for eight days. The Wii allegedly runs on a proprietary linux system but that has not stopped efforts to make it accessible to users. Manuals for the PS3 indicate that alternative boot sources are a standard feature which has led to the successful installation of Fedora. Microsoft's Xbox 360 also runs Linux and has proven easier to install Linux onto than its previous edition. Of note, the most diehard hackers have even disassembled their PS3 and Wii units, despite consumers paying up to $2300 on eBay.