I am a Linux user and have used it for a whole range of things including turning my xBoxes into servers and run a few USBs with bootable systems on them. I also run a full Ubuntu OS on my laptop along with a quick booting DamnSmallLinux OS. I knew that Linux would one day hit the gaming scene with the PS3 using it… But I never expected a console to be on its way so soon.

Before you start saving your pennies for a new console to add to your ever growing display units, please remember that this is only a Demo system and has very few games availible… Not just that… There are only 500-1000 ish being made.

Here is a press Release:

ANNISTON, AL–(Marketwire - October 14, 2008) - Envizions Computer Entertainment announced that the Mirrors Evolution 1.0 is scheduled to go on sale November 18, 2008. Mirrors Evolution is a commercial open source application that provides next generation applications such as gaming, VoIP, storage, cloud computing, game development, social network and multi-media applications. The Mirrors Evolution was designed on a modified version of Fedora 8. When the Mirrors Evolution disc is loaded over the Fedora 8 OS, new features will be available, yet maintaining the original Fedora features and applications. Updates will be released as phases per updates. Mirrors Evolution is the same software that governs the EVO Smart Console.

New features include background skins, icons, and the customized social network Pitch Buzz as well as Green Earth, Envizions green internet portal, and other desktop applications. Mirrors Evolution will ship with four promotional packages, each having a different Linux open source game enclosed and the basic orange version with no game.

Mirrors Evolution is mainly aimed at future developers who wish to dabble in new waters and get some new games in the works. I am sure if you check ebay in the future you may be able to get your hands on a original Mirrors Evolution console which I predict will be worth a few pennies when the offspring of this console get better.

Do not expect Mirrors Evolution to be competing with Sony, Nintendo or Microsoft for a few years… But do expect this to develop into a whole range of projects that will evolve from this baby.

I predict that you will see a few systems develop and may see this turn into a full blown OS (It is using Fedora which could turn some high end PCs into 100% gaming consoles (Or maybe multi-boot). I do think in the next 5 years this Mirrors Evolution system will evolve and maybe one day compete with the higher end consoles and will take its share…. You have to remember Linux is built on OpenSource and that will equal much cheaper games or even FREE games and more updates for those games (More people working on the games and a big community).

I know I will be building a Linux computer for this sole OS soon. As soon as it all gets stable and some of the components become cheaper I am sure more and more will be doing the same.

Usenet is the “Fight Club” of the downloading scene and has always done a good job in hiding away from the likes of P2P and Torrent scenes. That is until now.

I am breaking some of the unwritten rules of usenet by talking about this… but then again this is about Newzbin which is very close to my heart and has been for many many years.

If you would like to skip my ramblings and get to the court stuff just scroll down and read the Newzbinrelease.

Newzbin indexes files that are uploaded to newsgroups, if your a Torrent user you could look at Newzbin as the Demonoid or ISOHunt of the Usenet scene. Newzbin offers NZB files which work like Torrent files in that they link to all the files for you to download.

As Usenet files are normaly broken up into small 1.5MB files you need a site like Newzbin to make it more easy to download everything. Say id like to download a Linux OS which is 800MBs. This would be broken up into 1.5MB chunks which are make into RAR files parts. The NZB file will get all these parts and link to each part do you do not have to hunt them all down.

Newzbin does NOT host these NZB files as they are generated on request and all the files you download do not come from Newzbin but come from the newsgroups where they were uploaded.

So in some regards Newzbin is just like Google or Yahoo. They index anything that is uploaded to Usenet and give you the results that YOU request. Google, Yahoo, and MSN do not index Newsgroups so without Newzbin or other NZB sites we would have NO way of searching this LEGAL service. I don’t see anything illegal in this and if there was Google, Yahoo and MSN should be shut down.

Newzbin is a paid for service which is VERY cheap and costs just £0.30pence (Around $0.15cents) per week. In this you can browse pre-indexed content or browse RAW posts from the world of Usenet.

You can then select what you wish to download and generate a NZB file which you then open using a Newsgroup downloading program.

Everything that is uploaded to Usenet is hosted by Usenet providers like Giganews. Giganews will host this content on its servers for 240 days (Its getting longer and longer each year) and normaly will max most connections in speeds. I know some people who max their 100MB connections using Giganews.

You can find illegal content on Usenet like you can on the internet. All you have to do is type in “indiana jones Crystal skull torrent” into Google and you will find a whole list of places to download the movie for free. So should Google be sued for this? Should Google be making sure that these sites are removed? If these Torrent, P2P, and now NZB sites get taken down should Google also follow with them?

You can find all the legal software you would like on Usenet. I download a lot of Linux Distributions and OpenSource software from Usenet which is both legal and much faster than downloading from their own sites. I would normally only get around 100-300KBS on their sites as to 1500KBS when downloading from Usenet.

Here is the news from Newzbin itself:

Newzbin has recently received two serious complaints regarding the indexing we perform, and raising doubts as to its legality.

It is likely that we will in the coming weeks be presented with a court case and have to defend our rights. We will be defending ourselves vigorously against both the complainants if necessary and we believe a court will agree with our view that linking to content on Usenet is indeed legal and our method of dealing with unlawful content is appropriate. We believe that, or we wouldn’t still be here.

We are not in a position to disclose the identities of these two complainants (though I’m sure you can guess one of them) but we will report more as we can.

These cases are against us, not you. Having an account on Newzbin is not going to be a problem for you.

So, basically, if you start seeing press releases that legal action is commencing against us, don’t be alarmed - we know, and indeed it’s a good thing that we’re getting these issues laid to rest.

Remember these things take time however, so it’s unlikely we’ll have further news for another few weeks - please don’t hassle us for information, we will give you it when we have it.

(Comments are closed: Sorry, but this isn’t an invitation for a discussion on the merits of what we do, what we should be doing, or general hysteria around the matter. We have better things to be doing than moderating hysterical comments right now.)