This is my IMHO neutral perspective on the xbox. I am not an xbox enthusiast, and I don't own an xbox. Just from looking, I honestly believe that the system will go further than a lot of people think, a bit further than the competition.
The gamecube is pretty much out of the question, I have a feeling that it will meet the same fate as the dreamcast (although the dreamcast wasn't realy that bad of a system, its publicity just stunk). So far as hardware spec, its a bit ahead of the PS2, and way behind the xbox, yet when it comes to games its much closer to the back burner than the rest.
Now, the PS2, even though its hardware is the worst of the pack of current generation systems, IT has the games, period. Xbox seems to float just between the other two right now, currently its strong point is its hardware, but I guarentee you that after about a year or so the games will start to catch up because of that. Hell, a few of the better playstation games are already being ported to xbox with a few improvements taking advantage of the better hardware, metal gear solid 2 is a good example of this.
One of the key things I notice about this system is that it seems to not only be just a game system but a potential hobbiest toy. As you should know, that can easily lead it to a long life, even after its officialy dead. Because of the way its built, there seem to be a lot of things you can do with it, just look at all of the different hacks that are already documented. I don't see anybody attempting to replace the CPU or dvd drives from the other systems, or any less obvious stuff, like playing with the jtag port.