Examiner

Following the Wednesday announcement of the reveal date for the next Xbox (aka Xbox 720) comes a report that the console's operating system (OS) will be based on Windows 8.

Tech blogger and Microsoft insider Paul Thurott was one of the first to report that Microsoft would hold its next Xbox reveal on May 21. He had some other predictions as well but today he said that Microsoft will reveal the developer plans for the next-gen console at the BUILD conference in San Francisco in late June. He then said the next Xbox is "based on Windows 8 core."

Windows 8 core simply refers to the base version of the operating system that the Pro, Enterprise and RT versions are built off. Microsoft has made a big push to have the operating system integrated in not only PCs but tablets and smartphones as well so it being a part of the next Xbox should not be a surprise either.

Since the next Xbox is rumored to be powered by an AMD x86 CPU it is highly unlikely that it will use the Windows 8 RT version meant for ARM processors. This does however confirm the return of the "Metro" style user interface introduced late in the lifecycle of the Xbox 360.

While sales of Windows 8 have not met expectations and there has been a negative response to the "Metro" UI from PC users, there are several benefits to Microsoft using it with the next Xbox. Compared to Windows 7, it offers a slightly more efficient operating system when running games and it will provide a base to more easily port PC games to consoles and vice versa. This can also be seen as yet another example of Microsoft attempting to make the Xbox more of an ecosystem than a single piece of console hardware.

http://www.examiner.com/article/report-next-xbox-os-based-on-windows-8-core

"This does however confirm the return of the "Metro" style user interface introduced late in the life-cycle of the Xbox 360."

Awesome news alone in that statement. The 360 metro style OS, especially considering it is running on 8 year old hardware is pretty smooth, accessible and awesome. Very much looking forward to the next gen offerings y Microsoft.

That was obvious from 2010. I know I had it in my comparison thread from day one. They obviously planned win8 to be a bridge across all their devices.

Core is the Kernel.
Windows 8's Core/Kernel is based upon Windows 7, which in turn is based upon Windows Vista, Which in turn is based upon Windows XP, which in turn is based upon Windows 2000, which in turn is based on Windows NT which dates back 20 years. :)

As a fun fact the Xbox and Xbox 360 use an NT based kernel for their Operating Systems too, which have shown to be relatively lax in it's memory and CPU usage, consistently beating out Sony and Nintendo's consoles OS's.

What would interest me is how "full featured" the operating system is or if will they go for another closed garden approach like they did with the Xbox and the 360, where regardless of the OS/Kernel, people would never be able to tell it's powered by Windows.

Exactly. So many people don't know that this is only the basic system that handles i/o, drivers and stuff.

And yes, I always said that MS will still have a point here over Sony because they have much more experience in os-development. 

I think it will be interesting to see if you are able to install apps from the windows-store.

I read somewhere the PS4 is using a BSD kernel

Yes, it's a bsd-kernel.

i just went back to 7 after upgrading my pc. this does not excite me in the slightest. yes i know its just the kernal, but still. win 8 left a bad taste.

You don't like the GUI, ok. But it has nothing to do with the kernel.

I know, i still have doubts about it anyways. and with M$ trying to be like apple, we will see. You dont think that between thier phones, tablets and computers that the next xbox would be different? I hope so.