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Does the Wii run Linux?
arstechnica.com — Blogger Kiyoshi Saruwatari claims that Nintendo's upcoming Wii console runs on the open source Linux operating system. According to Saruwatari, who claims to be a Nintendo insider, the company reduced development costs by leveraging open source software and incorporating a Linux kernel into the Wii software platform.
fatmike- 393 diggs
- digg it
- digggroupie, on 10/12/2007, -43/+5Better Question. Does Wii care?
- XAsmodeaNX, on 10/12/2007, -62/+2Something so terribly homosexual could not possibly run the God of operating systems.
- hesslink111, on 10/12/2007, -29/+16@digggroupie
"do wii care" would have made soooo much more sense and been soooo much more effective - unversed, on 10/12/2007, -35/+1@XAsmodeaNX
That was so hella funny, I dugg your coment just because it made me laugh - daridave, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1It's because of people and comments like these ^^^^ that Windows is #1. How sad.
I, for one, plan on exploiting this if it ends up being true. If you can't understand the benefits, keep it to yourselves. :)
- mtnxfreeride, on 10/12/2007, -28/+2umm anwser to subject.. Duh this is old news get it off digg
- Darth_tater, on 10/12/2007, -3/+15i think it will be heavily locked down, but this is great news... its jsut that much easyier to (hopefully) hack.
- BasouKazuma, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3So this might mean that there's finally a Nintendo console worth modding.
- cogsprocket, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12This really shouldn't come as any big shock. A lot of smart hardware does the same exact thing. "Leverageing open source software" is now synonymous with "Using open source software in proprietary hardware to lower costs." Linux and BSD are superstars when it comes to embedded systems. It only makes sense that outiside of a console made by Microsoft we should see them used to power consoles.
- AngryBacon, on 10/12/2007, -21/+3But does it run OS X?
- SuMizzle, on 10/12/2007, -4/+11Does it matter, really? Not trying to be a smartass, just curious. I could understand if it were using a kernel open to the end user, but getting excited about this is like getting excited about the embedded software running the U-Scan at Krogers.
- mattmaison, on 10/12/2007, -8/+6This just in, your local ATM is using Linux!
- damentz, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5SuMizzle, it makes it easier to port Wii games to other platforms. Its like the portability between xbox 360 games and windows games. Why? They both use some sort of windows kernel.
Not only is it easier to port, but they will most likely be using OpenGL, which will be nice. - whitehornmatt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6@mattmaison
All the ones that I've seen use Windows 2000 - grumbel, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3### Not only is it easier to port, but they will most likely be using OpenGL,
Linux != OpenGL, beside the Wii is using GX as its graphics APPI just like the Gamecube from what I know.
- HanSolo69, on 10/12/2007, -10/+1why is this even posed as a question? It came as official word from Nintendo a few days ago.
- JohnH, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3If this is true (and we really have no proof as of yet), it matters because of that pesky GPL. If Nintendo modifies the Linux kernel they have to make those changes available to the community.
Linux is so very buzzword-worthy, so if Nintendo hasn't come forward with that information in its own press releases (and assuming this is all true), then they may be trying to hide it so they don't have to publish. Nintendo has always been fairly secretive about how their software is actually put together -- we didn't know about the weird compression schemes in their NES games until the ROMs were dumped and disassembled (they certainly aren't stored internally as tile maps). - MasterFunk, on 10/12/2007, -4/+15Ok I am tired of people linking to this blog, so I am just going to say it, Kiyoshi Saruwatari, or what ever his name is, has tried to ***** his way to get hits for the past 6 months. If anyone actually READ his blog, you would find glaring mistakes that contradict everything Nintendo has said. Like;
Wii - $199
Wiimote + nunchuck (also comes with wriststrap) - $24,99
And a Wii Microphone, which, by the way, he defended quite impressively in the face of Miyamoto saying other wise.
But thats not all folks, we still got more in stored for you!
While 90% of time he seem mostly conservative with his rumors, and just gave what the fanboys wanted to hear. He also sometimes goes into the land of "Complete *****" like this;
"The [Wii] secret will put Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 to shame. Not only gameplay wise but also in graphics. It will enhance the graphics in such a way it will be good for gameplay and look stunning. And that's coupled with the extreme effectivness of the platform to push the amount of polygon."
Right... and it will all be powered by the newly surprise release 80 core Intel CPU chip.
To make it even worse he goes out of his way to talk about how much the other bloggers *****, then goes talking about his own. I just wish people would stop citing him as a resource. - SuMizzle, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1@ damentz
Thanks for putting it in perspective. Makes sense. - Tsutsu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1What would the point be? Nintendo has already created libraries for I/O, networking, multithreading, graphics, audio etc. as the games will be needing them (which won't be running under Linux according to this article) so they don't need Linux to do it for the whole Channels and Virtual Console thing, nor would they save any money by doing so. Plus, since every Wii has exactly the same hardware, there's no need to support anything else.
- SeBBBe, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3I am Kiyoshi Saruwatari. I just made up that Wii runs Linux.
I posted proof at Kiyoshi's official blog, http://saruwatari-wii.blogspot.com/.
I just want to tell you I had a GREAT time making things up and reading peoples' comments. It's been an entertaining experiment, and I hope you enjoyed it as well.- daspacepirate, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Wow, I wish I was as cool as you.
- BG2010, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1now at the top of the article it says he just made this up as a joke.
- nemoder, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2And when he finally gets his own Wii box home from the store he'll open it and find out it's been replaced with a cheap Linux PC as a joke by Nintendo. But at least he'll be able to play all those tetris and breakout clones!
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