Editor's Note:
Since this article was published on December 11, 2000, Indrema Corporation has gone out of business.
Imagine for a second that you have formed a new electronics company and your first product will be a revolutionary new video game console. It sounds like a video game player's dream, doesn't it? You may even have had an idea for a new kind of video game console yourself. Well, this isn't just a dream for Indrema CEO John Gildred -- it describes the past year of his life.


Photo courtesy Indrema
The Indrema L600 will be the first Linux-based game console.

Gildred founded Indrema in January 2000, and by spring 2001 his company will be playing the role of David taking on the Goliaths of the game console industry. A company would have to be incredibly brave to launch a video game console in today's market unless it could attract a large portion of the gaming audience by offering something truly unique to gamers. Sony has just released the PlayStation 2, a sequel to its original popular game console. Nintendo, a company synonymous with video games, is planning to release a new console, called GameCube, next year. And Microsoft is going to spend $500 million to grab its share of the game console market with its machine, called the Xbox. How will a small independent company ever compete in such a crowded market?

Indrema's L600 video game console will be the first to use the Linux operating system, and is being promoted as an all-in-one home entertainment system. Linux is a free, open source operating system that has become a popular alternative to proprietary operating systems, such as Windows. In this edition of How Stuff Will Work, we'll find out what separates L600 from other more established game consoles and why its manufacturer has chosen to use Linux.