Running Windows XP on a PlayStation 3
Yes, you read that correctly, it is possible to run Windows XP on a PlayStation 3! Don’t get your hopes up though, it’s not as great as it sounds. (More on that at the end of the article) SONY has done the impossible, and is allowing users to run their own systems on their hardware, which is ironic considering how far they’re going to keep the PSP technology locked up. Over in the Settings menu there is an option to partition the hard drive so it can boot into a separate OS.
SONY however only officially supports Yellow-Dog LINUX, an open source operating system combining both GUI and command prompt (for those unfamiliar with LINUX). If you are unfamiliar with LINUX, you’re NOT going to want to try this.
LINUX is currently the only OS to properly work on the PS3, but thanks to a brilliant hacker, you can now use QEMU, an emulation environment, to run Windows XP inside of LINUX, just like you would run Windows inside a Mac.
Don’t get excited though. As shown in the video at the end of this post, Windows takes a very painful amount of time to boot up. You’re running 3 OSs at the same time after all (LINUX, QEMU and Windows), so performance is going to take a hit. Hard.
As for running any PC games on the PS3, don’t hold your breath. Most games require Direct X to run, and the PS3 doesn’t support it. The system would have to be complexly emulated, which, at this point, would flat out kill the system.
So why are people wanting to get Windows XP onto their PS3? Because they can. As for functionality, it’s minimal at the least. Games currently can’t run because the hardware they require simply aren’t there, and they are yet to be emulated. At this point, all that’s been proven is that it can be done. AS for what use the OSs will have on the PS3, only time will tell.
