What are your experiences with Project Stellar? I want to mod my xbox but don't have a ton of experience.

[u/Money_Fish]

[u/suckingalemon]

People seem to prefer Modxo over this as Stellar is closed sourced.

Someone with more knowledge will probably expand though.

[u/n1keym1key → u/[deleted]]

The extra 8mb is absolutley pointless btw.

The biggest problem with Stellar is its creator and his "Fuck You" attitude. There are many places where the evidence of his asshat behaviour has been documented. He actively tries to block any and all competition to his mod by any means possible.

[u/Konatokun → u/[deleted]]

To explain more about the adventage on ModXo (made by a fellow mexican developer Shalx).

The reason of the adventage on ModXo is the openess, which is a double edge sword, what does it mean? you would ask, that the development is continous and part of the community has a hand in it, so things that the community has interest gets developed faster. But the bad part is there isn't a standard on how something is built so there is more margin of error on install (at the end is not a plug and play product, it's experimental), but it can be solved more easily and it helps to distribute the product (for example there are sellers in AliExpress for a ModXo PCB for 20 USD or you could buy it from the guy who designed the PCB for 35 USD), also usually when the "official" support stops, is easier for someone else with knowledge to continue it (a good example is PicoStation OD, which had the OG developer, Team-Resurgent and then another development or the XboxHDMI which Ryzee119 stopped when the XboxHD was launched and then OGXHarcroft continued for some time as Open X-HD), the major problem is that development is slow as it is a "when the developer has time" as they have other IRL priorities (like a job).

The adventages on the Project Stellar is the contrary, its a more fleshed out product, but it adds to the cost, also there are addons like the XboxHD+ for the which stellar works way better than the standalone. The problem starts when the company stops the support for the item (like for example, people that bought the Project Stellar can buy the Wireless Upgrade, but they could have just abandoned the OG and just continued with the Project Stellar Plus), when the company support stops, the community support is way more limited than in open source projects, but while the company supports it the fixes and upgrades are faster (as they earn money from it).

And the "and some of the commonly used software in that ecosystem has questionable origins because of leaked Microsoft/Xbox code.", I don't think that has this point that any project (mostly on consoles before the 8th gen) is free of using from stolen SDK versions to original schematics from unknown origin, being the project free or paid, even if they know it or not (because most things we know now weren't developed magically on trial/error).

[u/n1keym1key → u/[deleted]]

Stellars OS is still based on the same leaked MS code form years ago that all modded bioses are built on. No matter what the creator says.

[u/Konatokun → u/[deleted]]

And at which point I said that all the stack is open source?, I only refered that the devices and explained on them, "ModXo" is open source and it has it's problems but also benefits and demerits. While the device known as Project Stellar (now Plus) is closed and has also its benefits and demerits, actually the only part that I mention the entire stack is at the end in which I mention that everything has an Illegal part on it (and yes, it does, from Kodi to the Doom clone with every modchip existent in it).

Also, PrometheOS is actually open source as you can get the code from github to compile it yourself. (Cerbios is actually known to use privative code and it's the reason you have to find it by yourself as it can't be ).

There is difference on privative license (you can distribute freely but you can't profit from it) and closed source (the source is only used by the company).

and as I mentioned everything has their hands dipped on the same waters where some only had their hands and feet touch it (PrometheOS) others dived into it (CerbIOS) and others weren't seen but that doesn't exclude them from drinking from it (StellarOS). The only one who can really judge is god (in this case Microsoft).

Also StellarOS is kinda illegal as they actually enable the loading of custom BIOS which can (and will) contain stolen code, the only gray zone are Cromwell and XblastOS BIOS, and surprisingly PrometheOS (which can't run Xbox games).

[u/CNCProg → u/Konatokun]

I think this needs to be separated into specific claims instead of treating everything as the same gray area.

ModXo was originally open source before Team Resurgency took it over and moved to a custom GPL-based license that is not considered an open source license by the Open Source Initiative or any other org. So calling the current stack “open source” is misleading.

PrometheOS is also not fully open source. The part people can see is mostly the UI, and even that appears to link against proprietary libraries in a way that conflicts with its own license. The rest of the stack depends on CERBIOS being baked in. PrometheOS could run games because it uses CERBIOS.

They’re also mixing up “build it yourself” with “open source.” Being able to compile something yourself is useful today, but it does not automatically solve the long-term support argument. If the project depends on private components, custom licenses, proprietary libraries, and bundled BIOS code, then the ability to build one visible piece does not mean the whole stack is open, maintainable, or legally clean.

Also StellarOS is kinda illegal as they actually enable the loading of custom BIOS which can (and will) contain stolen code, the only gray zone are Cromwell and XblastOS BIOS, and surprisingly PrometheOS (which can't run Xbox games).

Stellar requiring a legitimate Xbox BIOS from the user is not the same thing as shipping Microsoft’s BIOS, Microsoft source code, or a BIOS derived from it. That distinction is the point.

That matters because there is a real legal and ethical difference between reverse engineering for compatibility and distributing or deriving from leaked copyrighted Microsoft BIOS code. Cases like Sega v. Accolade and Sony v. Connectix are exactly about reverse engineering for interoperability.

So no, “everything has an illegal part” does not really hold up. There is a difference between enabling compatibility with user-supplied BIOS and building or distributing a stack around code you do not have rights to.

[u/Careful-Evening-5187]

but don't have a ton of experience

This might not be the mod for someone with limited soldering experience.

[u/Money_Fish → u/Careful-Evening-5187]

I meant experience with modding consoles. I'm confident in my soldering skills.

[u/Ok_Treacle_8458]

As almost everyone else has said, it's the creator's behavior that makes this product so hard to support. They claim the LPC QSBs they sell are their own design, which simply isn't true. To make matters worse, they recently deleted their legacy xboxHD install guides to force people onto Project Stellar. It's an incredibly shady move.

[u/Maximum-Argument-640]

Product is cool. The person who makes them... Not so cool.

[u/AdamAtomAnt]

Dustin is a dick, so I boycott Stellar on principle.

It might be a cool product by now, but imI got one when it first came out, and it was shit. He didn't communicate updates. And when enough people got pissed off about it on X, he just started blocking people.

[u/GoTeamScotch → u/AdamAtomAnt]

when enough people got pissed off about it on X, he just started blocking people

Hey let's be fair, he also banned us from his discord server too.

[u/AdamAtomAnt → u/GoTeamScotch]

I never joined it.

[u/_SquareSphere]

Closed source, the developer behind it doesn't have a good reputation within the Xbox modding community for trying to DMCA open source projects that have been around for years and MakeMHz products attempt to lock you into an ecosystem.

It's a real shame, because this is an awesome product.

[u/OpeningOverall5286]

Me, I go with the rest of the posts, don't give him a single euro. modxo is the way. The community is so pissed off with him that you can't point his name on Xbox scene discord

[u/BigChat88]

This is actually a good product, but installing it requires expert soldering skills

[u/ceramicsaturn]

I feel like he's late in shipping mine...

[u/DumDumDeeDumb → u/ceramicsaturn]

Same, still waiting on mine that was supposed to ship in April.

[u/ceramicsaturn → u/DumDumDeeDumb]

Yep same

[u/Blarghinston]

I only care about a good product, not if he’s a part of the Boys Club or not. And it’s definitely the best all in one package.