While the Xbox 360 is expected to ship with a 20GB hard drive as standard, the coming new release Sony Playstation 3 (PS3) will be equipped with a harddisk running pre-installed Linux OS.

Quoted:
SONY COMPUTER Entertainment boss Ken Kutaragi has suggested the upcoming Playstation 3 will come equipped with a hard disk. And the hard disk may come with Linux pre-installed.

Sony positions PS3 as a supercomputer, so in order to declare that the PS3 is a computer, they will have the hard disk preinstalled with Linux as a bonus. People won’t recognize a game console as a computer unless Sony is going to run an OS on their PS3 console. Anyway, in fact, the Cell can run multiple OSes.

Quoted:
Kutaragi said the PS3 will run operating systems as applications. “The kernel will be running on the Cell, and multiple OSes will be running on top of that as applications. Of course, the PS3 can run Linux. If Linux can run, so can Lindows. Other PC Operating Systems can run too, such as Windows and (Mac OS) Tiger, if the publishers want to do so. Maybe a new OS might come out,” he adds.

With the pre-installed Linux OS, the console can be used for applications beyond gaming, such as video editing and photo retouching.

However, it is not yet clear whether a hard disk will ship with the PS3 as standard or whether it will be and optional extra. Anyway, Sony has added a 2.5-inch HDD bay so that users can add hard disks, such as 80GB and 120GB.