Support NeoGAF

[Chrono]

You know...if Nintendo continues to succeed at videogames I wonder if they might expand to other markets...

Like making OS's. It's about time Microsoft had a serious competitor.

I say they go into the space industry. All this talk about space tourism and colonizing mars needs a leading innovator to kick start things into action. Nintendo would be the perfect company, and it would go well with their blue ocean strategy.

 

[theultimo]

Es operating system |

Nintendo making an open source OS with a FAT filesystem. Interesting that they chose that, FAT would only be useful with smaller Flash drives because of compatability with Windows and speed.

 

[E-phonk]

Interesting that they chose that, FAT would only be useful with smaller Flash drives because of compatability with Windows and speed.

...or SD cards

 

[cicero]

So clearly GAF is very helpful. I'm not an expert by any means on the subject, but I'm not a complete moron either. I'm about 95% positive that Nintendo would never do this, but I thought it was mildly interesting. Thanks for all the great feedback and thought though! I would by no means consider your responses asinine and sophomoric if I ever met you guys in real life.

Like I said, I never claimed to know that much about this stuff, but I was close. There aren't any other mass consumer friendly operating systems available for PCs other than Windows. I appreciate your response.

Blah blah blah.

GET THE HELL OUT.

 

[Dolphin]

Blah blah blah.

GET THE HELL OUT.

I for one am deeply offended by that gif.

 

[ksamedi]

I think Nintendo could actually do a good job in the OS buisness, they have a certain way with interfaces that make the program more enjoyeble and easy to use. I think that if they have enough technical knowledge (which they probably have) they could make a fantastic OS. Maybe they should try Japan first.

 

[DrGAKMAN]

Back in the Famicom days (Family Computer, mind you) Nintendo was sorta on it's way into this realm...they backed off 'cos it is sorta ambitious. Wii is sorta implementing some of that original ambition though. When I heard about the message board, Wii Connect 24, Wii Shop, photo, internet, news & weather channels...I thought "is this Nintendo?" I sorta hope that Nintendo delves into this more 'cos I like the Channel's system and I like using my TV for these applications...I'd like to use it for documentation, organizing/catalogging, media veiwing/production, art/music/animation (like a super advanced Mario Paint or something) and other such things.

 

[Panajev2001a]

No, that's not the case anymore.

It is still the case unless you want to have headaches more often than not and especially if you want to do things/use programs the distribution did not really want you to use like Sun's JDK on Fedora for example.

Back on topic, this is quite a nice way to train your young software developers and to keep working on ideas to use in your CE devices.

 

[Vic]

Probably the pre-alpha build of Mario Paint Wii

 

[maxmars]

It is still the case unless you want to have headaches more often than not and especially if you want to do things/use programs the distribution did not really want you to use like Sun's JDK on Fedora for example.

You are talking about stuff an average user will not even understand, let alone want to do, on a specific distribution to boot. We may start throwing in casual stuff like registering any exe as a Windows service using Windows 2003 toolkit since we're at it.

 

[Crayon Shinchan]

I'd love to see Nintendo enter the OS market.

Just to see them bat the fuck down by MS. If only so that Ninty fans would shut the fuck up and stop being so retardly obnoxious.

Nintendo has its work cut out for it; turn this sudden boom into viable business; lifestyle software. Can it continue? Or will it fall into fad territory?

 

[Panajev2001a]

You are talking about stuff an average user will not even understand, let alone want to do, on a specific distribution to boot. We may start throwing in casual stuff like registering any exe as a Windows service using Windows 2003 toolkit since we're at it.

No, what kind of user in F7 for example would want to use java applets... . Or enjoy efficient graphics performance without setting up and downloading the proper drivers from livna or not screwing up your installation if the graphics card gets upgraded .
Or enjoy using ALaCarte to modify the "start" menu around... Installing AVG (to have an anti-virus) is as easy as it could be (you can do it and use it properly without using the command line... not ) ?

Look, we will have to agree to disagree on this point .

 

[ratcliffja]

Is this ES OS for DS?

 

[Panajev2001a]

Is this ES OS for DS?

I do not think so, I think it is more of a research project, but if any of you knows something more about the internal use of this OS, please do correct me... I am eager to know more about this project too .

 

[wsippel]

Back on topic, this is quite a nice way to train your young software developers and to keep working on ideas to use in your CE devices.

At least the lead developers are no rookies as far as I can tell.

 

[Panajev2001a]

At least the lead developers are no rookies as far as I can tell.

Well, you need competent and seasoned leads to help the other make the most out of the work they do IMHO.

I do not know how this went under the radar for so long, I want to know more about the project .

 

[ITA84]

Or enjoy efficient graphics performance without setting up and downloading the proper drivers from livna or not screwing up your installation if the graphics card gets upgraded .

Certain distros have ready-made nvidia/ati driver packets.

Or enjoy using ALaCarte to modify the "start" menu around... Installing AVG (to have an anti-virus) is as easy as it could be (you can do it and use it properly without using the command line... not ) ?

I don't know what ALaCarte is, but I can modify my "start" menu without problems (KDE), and I don't think anti-viruses are gonna be an important element in Linux for a long time.

 

[hooo]

Squeak would probably work well enough for Wii homebrew if Nintendo made all the libraries for the PC and Wii since all the user code and almost all of the libraries run inside a virtual machine, but for games, I'd have to say that it'd be pretty janky. At least the version I had to use (which was about 6 or so years ago) was all interpreted code including all of the library code that came with the language. It's purely object oriented unlike C#, java and C++ which are hybrids.

More or less, any program written with it will be big and slow compared to something native or partially compiled. Great for rapid development of apps, but too slow and bulky for any game.

If I had to guess, I'd say they're looking to make an development environment for internal developers to easily kick out new Wii channels. They could have someone experienced do all the intensive stuff outside the vm and get all the simpler, less intensive gui stuff done in a jiffy.

 

[CTLance]

I'd love to see Nintendo enter the OS market.
Just to see them bat the fuck down by MS. If only so that Ninty fans would shut the fuck up and stop being so retardly obnoxious.[...]

Whoa, videogames are SERIOUS business.

I'm a bit puzzled by the Linux detractors here. I'm using Ubuntu on this box, and I've never had to access the command line. On my old, better, box installing the NVidia drivers for my 6600GT was a matter of a few clicks and typing in my password. Never needed to come close to the CLI. The complaints about CLI usage with graphics drivers remind me of my old Debian/SuSE days where installing the modules for my Ati 8500 would be an exercise in futility - those are loooong gone though.


Anyway, back on topic. Honestly, if the project is handled by seasoned veterans inside the company I have no clue whatsoever about Nintendos aspirations.
Sure, a gaming device "OS" or basic VM (Wiiware) could be spun off, but why go to these lengths and write everything from scrap?
Must be a research/academic/pet project. Otherwise it'd be a terrible waste of time.

 

[Cerebral Assassin]

Sure, a gaming device "OS" or basic VM (Wiiware) could be spun off, but why go to these lengths and write everything from scrap?

Isn't that just the way Nintendo do things? I mean don't they claim they have a physics engine similar to Havok that they made themselves?

 

[wsippel]

Well, you need competent and seasoned leads to help the other make the most out of the work they do IMHO.

I do not know how this went under the radar for so long, I want to know more about the project .

nes seems to be a proof of concept thing for this:

An Extensible Operating System Architecture Using Reflection

Authors: OKASAKA SHIKI(Nintendo Co., Ltd., JPN) UENO KYU(Nintendo Co., Ltd., JPN)

Abstract: We propose an extensible component operating system architecture in which an operating system kernel uses reflection to process C++ pure virtual function based system calls and upcalls to provide a unified programming environment for application, server, and kernel development. We found that we could even develop file subsystems and a TCP/IP protocol stack on an existing operating system based on this architecture. (author abst.)

The two authors are the lead developers (or maybe even the only two developers) of nes.

 

[maxmars]

No, what kind of user in F7 for example would want to use java applets... . Or enjoy efficient graphics performance without setting up and downloading the proper drivers from livna or not screwing up your installation if the graphics card gets upgraded .
Or enjoy using ALaCarte to modify the "start" menu around... Installing AVG (to have an anti-virus) is as easy as it could be (you can do it and use it properly without using the command line... not ) ?

Look, we will have to agree to disagree on this point .

I don't know about the last two because I don't use them (I also suspect most people wouldn't even need them), but all the rest you should expect your distribution to have it installed and configured without recurring to the command line.