Windows Server 2008 on PlayStation3

With the recent spread of PS/3’s in the market place, there are a number of hobby’ists and university professors, etc. who are using the Yellow Dog Linux operating system.

It was only a matter of time until you’d be able to install other operating systems on the PS/3.  Microsoft have announced the Beta version of the Windows Server 2008 product with native driver support for the IBM “Cell” processor, allowing the PS/3 to run Windows Server 2008.

Announcing a new milestone in home entertainment and productivity – Microsoft have made available a Beta of the Windows Server platform with native driver support for the Sony PlayStation3 console.

This allows for Media Center extender functionality, and for hobbyists to develop home automation applications using Visual Studio.NET Express (Cell Processor Edition).

Additionally, Internet Information Services (IIS-7) can be configured to host ASP.NET and Silverlight applications, and use SQL Server Express (Cell Processor Edition), although limited to only 60GB of disk space (depending on hardware).

Future versions of the XBox-360 will provide similar “Windows Server” functionality.  The PlayStation3 allows for home users & gamers to immediately utilize High-Definition (HD) BluRay content within the Windows Server environment.

Source : Windows Server 2008

This is great news, it might make my wife allow me to buy a PS/3 – for the BluRay drive capacity at least – and the article mentions that you can even use XBox wireless controllers, and Guitar Hero peripherals.

Of course, the Media Center extender drivers and networking support is built-in.

The only downside is that this is a limited “core” implementation.   Meaning that the “Aero” interface for Vista and Windows Server 2008 don’t run on the graphics processor for the PS/3 (yet).   But – Hyper-V should run – and so it can run Virtual Machines.

Next thing to try would be a SharePoint server.   I should call it something like “SharePointStation” – SharePoint on PlayStation3 !