More about (Cancelled?) Project Helium: Windows on Xbox 360 Options

[Xbox-Scene]

More about (Cancelled?) Project Helium: Windows on Xbox 360 -- Posted by XanTium on May 23 18:25 EST
From mercurynews.com:
[QUOTE]
I've got a copy of an email about a project called Helium at Microsoft. The email came out a couple of years ago and it apparently describes an attempt to put Windows on the Xbox 360. It's one of the tidbits that I picked up while writing my book. If our collective consciousness on the web can be considered to be a "hive mind," I wonder if we can solve this mystery. Just what is, or was, Helium? Is it dead or postponed?

For the record, JonT is Jon Thomason, the former head of software for the Xbox team. He sent this email to the whole Xbox group and he did not provide this email to me. The email is dated December, 2003. It describes how Helium has moved from investigation to a project. So what was it? I hear from my sources that this was the third SKU, the version of the Xbox 360 that ran Windows. It is the ultimate Trojan Horse in that respect. But Microsoft executives have consistently maintained that it makes no sense to make the game console into a full fledged PC. They reportedly canceled Helium. I hear that it was an idea they tried out to please Bill Gates' curiosity, but it never panned out. But I don't know that for sure. Is Helium something that we will see in the future? Will they save it for a high-end SKU later on? Will it be the 3.0 generation? Who can tell us? Who can speculate why it would make sense to come out with this kind of product?
[/QUOTE]

Read More (incl. c/p of email): mercurynews.com

[zerodefect]

i wouldnt mind having another pc in my home. bring on windows360!

[FreshOuttaMaps]

No wonder the vista minimum hard drive requirement is 20 gb. Bill Gates u bastard!

[Aislin]

I'd like to see a fifth (or is it sixth? seventh?) SKU of Windows Vista. A good bit cheaper than Windows Vista Ultimate Edition (we are planning to use it on hardware we bought from MS, after all), but with the same features.

They could launch a larger hard drive at the same time.... or since it would be a Windows PC I guess I could just connect my External Hard Drive.

Pretty sure Vista only takes up 4-8GB of HDD space, and I know I could do without that on my 20GB.

[The Bat]

What exactly would be the point of Windows for the 360 though? The console had been hyped as a component to link your computer to your TV set, so making it the computer as well seems rather unnecessary. As it stands you can stream music, video, and some limited Java apps so that it comes out of the console, without an additional O/S. Sure you needs Windows Media Center or Vista now, but XP support is likely before the PS3 launches.

I don't claim to know everything, of course. But web browsing and e-mail functionality in a console did fail to catch on with Sega's Dreamcast. Some of the hype for the PS3 (downloading music and video, online communities, working in Linux) sounds pretty similar to what was hyped for the PS2 as well. At best, it'll probably mean as much to the console community as "you can also play music CDs" does today.

[CattyKid]

Anyone remember, over a year ago, maybe a year and a half, news like this? No name, but the possibility of 2-3 SKUs, and one was JUST this: one would be a fully fledged PC.

[Aislin]

Only has 512MB of ram, doesn't it? That's like the bare minimum for Vista. So upgrading your console wont happen.

The third SKU is still possible.

This post has been edited by Aislin: May 24 2006, 01:31 AM

[The Bat]

I imagine that if a third SKU is planned, it'll be as a computer capable of playing XBox 360 games, and not as a games console you can use as a PC. I remember Sega doing something similar with the TerraDrive, which was basically a 386 with the Sega MegaDrive (Japanese Sega Genesis) kludged on to it. I believe that something similar was also at least discussed for later consoles too.

Of course, with an increasing number of XBox 360 titles being ported to the PC (and vice versa), would there be a point? How many people buying the latest video gaming consoles have yet to purchase their first PC?

[3dfx_ownd_joo]

It's stupid to compare the ram in a console to the ram in a computer..... remember Doom3, and half life 2 runs on an xbox1, with 64MB of ram, Doom3 struggles on a PC with 768MB of ram

[Mr_Milenko]

True.. Half Life 2 and Doom 3 both run on the Xbox.. but they also both look like horse shit :-/

[CattyKid]

True.. Half Life 2 and Doom 3 both run on the Xbox.. but they also both look like horse shit :-/

Compared to a PC that costs over $750, but for an Xbox that was bought for about $200 2-3 years ago, I'd say it's pretty sweet.

And they don't look THAT bad... they still look good just not PC good.

This post has been edited by CattyKid: May 24 2006, 03:30 AM

[erexx]

It probably will do and has done MS good to learn how to make ring0 and ring1 operating systems work together in a virtual processor environment.

Helium used to harvest the power of Singularities.
Awesome.

[cavernimports]

Only has 512MB of ram, doesn't it? That's like the bare minimum for Vista. So upgrading your console wont happen.

The third SKU is still possible.

the archatechture is far more effient that even a pc running 3 times that amount.....

quake4 on pc with 2gig ram vs 360 with 512ram = same

[Jason9875]

It's stupid to compare the ram in a console to the ram in a computer..... remember Doom3, and half life 2 runs on an xbox1, with 64MB of ram, Doom3 struggles on a PC with 768MB of ram

Yeah a HIGHLY TWEAKED TO WORK WITH 64MB of RAM versions of the game ran fine.

But NOTHING like the PC Game engine counterparts would run fine with 64MB of RAM. Why? Because on a PC they do HAVE a lot of memory so why increase loading times, increase the amount of loading screens when they could simply just use the extra memory to store stuff in.

the archatechture is far more effient that even a pc running 3 times that amount.....

No its not, the console just runs one thing at a time (The game) and doesn't have to worry about things running in the background, not having to worry about windows taking up 256MB of memory (Yay for Vista which will be even worse!)

Now when a console has to do that, expect it to be FAR worse in general computing stuff such as web browsing etc. AND since we are on the memory topic, in computers the main memory is used by the CPU and nothing else. Where as with the xbox 360 you'll have the ATi GPU uses the memory also.

But yet why would anyone WANT Vista on the console anyway?

Its just a bloated Piece of utter shit operating system that uses up 1000x more resources then it needs too, adds features no one will ever use or even care about, and adds "Features" that will just piss people off. (Come on getting an error about not having permission to delete shortcuts off the desktop is just asinine)

http://www.winsupersite.com/reviews/winvista_5308_05.asp Now after reading that, no one should ever want vista. Ever.

[cavernimports]

Yeah a HIGHLY TWEAKED TO WORK WITH 64MB of RAM versions of the game ran fine.

But NOTHING like the PC Game engine counterparts would run fine with 64MB of RAM. Why? Because on a PC they do HAVE a lot of memory so why increase loading times, increase the amount of loading screens when they could simply just use the extra memory to store stuff in.
No its not, the console just runs one thing at a time (The game) and doesn't have to worry about things running in the background, not having to worry about windows taking up 256MB of memory (Yay for Vista which will be even worse!)

Now when a console has to do that, expect it to be FAR worse in general computing stuff such as web browsing etc. AND since we are on the memory topic, in computers the main memory is used by the CPU and nothing else. Where as with the xbox 360 you'll have the ATi GPU uses the memory also.

But yet why would anyone WANT Vista on the console anyway?

Its just a bloated Piece of utter shit operating system that uses up 1000x more resources then it needs too, adds features no one will ever use or even care about, and adds "Features" that will just piss people off. (Come on getting an error about not having permission to delete shortcuts off the desktop is just asinine)

http://www.winsupersite.com/reviews/winvista_5308_05.asp Now after reading that, no one should ever want vista. Ever.

quite clearly you are not a ms beta tester in your spare time.... ive used dec 05 vista and it runs like linux with all the compatability of xp.


emphasis on the term beta....its still a beta on the pc....for all we know ms may have originally written vista to work exclusively for the 360!

go onto the ms webiste, sign up as a beta tester, install vista on your computer, run it for a few weeks and then make a post worth looking at