Why doesn't the Microsoft Xbox run on a Windows-type O/S? (Not Vista, XP, etc. something like how MS has a separate OS for phones)
by 
pnyknight
ANSWERS: 1
-
There are a number of reasons both Xbox and 360 have their own OS. First, it gives Xbox a chance to own its own destiny in terms of architecture. When you have your own operating system, it's easy to go in and change things. Second comes performance. There isn't much of a hardware abstraction layer on Xbox - most stuff talks almost directly to hardware. This eliminates a lot of software overhead you might find on a PC. Third is security. With our own operating system, it also becomes a lot easier to design & implement our own security architecture. As the community is finding out, there is a lot of custom stuff. The operating system is more than just the kernel. On Windows, you have critical components such as explorer.exe, shlwapi.dll, user32.dll, and others that are required for your system to function. On Xbox 360, we have similarly critical components. When you see a required system update from Xbox Live, we are mostly updating these critical components with fixes as well as new features.
RELATED QUESTIONS
Copyright 2023, Wired Ivy, LLC