Can we run Windows on the Wii? (was Silly question about a Wii Possibility)

Hey all,

I am about as new to this as you get. I have some familiarity with programming but am no expert per say. So I finally loaded Homebrew and am excited to see what can be done. I will probably d/l the Devkit for some fun and tinkering. Now one thing that came to mind is the architecture of the Wii.

Can it be compared to a computer without a HDD?
If so, do you think an external drive might be able to hook into the USB port on the back and get it to recognize it if it is a FAT32?

Here is my challenge and am willing to take it up with any experts in here willing to try. :-)

I was thinking of attempting to run an OS like Windows through the Homebrew channel. Then hopefully get WoW to work at the same time. I know it sounds crazy.

Any thoughts or comments?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/30/2009 11:20PM by bushing.

Bump. Does anyone have some insight?

I'm pretty sure its not possible to get windows running on the wii because windows is closed source. You would have a better chance with linux. Speaking of linux, I believe there are already a couple versions of it running on wii.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/31/2009 12:35AM by Arikado.

Arikado is right. Plus Windows is also closed-source making that impossible to port and since the Wii is PPC architecture and windows is x86 based you run into a major problem. Running Mac OS X on the Wii is a slim chance but it breaks the license agreement with Apple automatically making it illegal. Best bet is linux.

i know linux have virtual machines on it, but there is not enough memory to support the intergration of windows........... IE, Media player...... etc...

Similarly, I'm really pretty sure WoW is closed source too.

Actually, is possible to run older versions of Windows on any platform, with an appropriate emulator. In this case, a x86-architeture emulator. And this thing actually exists, it's open-source, it's coded in portable C, and it's cleverly disguised as a DOS environment emulator... Yeah, DOSBox. I already have heard of people running Windows 95 and 98 with some tweaks under DOSBox, and I myself have tried Win 3.1 (which is mainly a DOS GUI anyway) using the app. Of course, it would be really slow, compared to a real machine, but it's possible.

For a full experience with alternative OS on Wii, however, Linux is still the best.

Or even the use of Bochs (http://bochs.sourceforge.net/) could be done. Full speed is almost not even considerable running on the hardware in the Wii but would be a nice proof of concept.

I see what you guys are saying... I know we can get WoW to work in Ubuntu with Wine to install Windows applications. So it might possible to get Wine to work in the version of Linux for Wii... Hmm. I will see what I can find out with some research. I think it would be awesome to project to complete. :P

To make Wine work on Wii Linux, you would need a x86-to-PPC instructions translator, in other words, an emulator.

unlike your computer, the Wii has limited power so the response is probably no, not even worth the try

Quote
ekeeke
unlike your computer, the Wii has limited power so the response is probably no, not even worth the try

That's true too. Another thing that is true is that the Wii is simply a small form of a PC but a different CPU architecture. I think the major problem would be the PPC to x86 emulator. Getting the translation to work would be one thing.

what about remotely controlling a Windows computer from the Wii? that could work.. I used logmein to control my computer via a web page on another computer. Maybe a pluggin for a future homebrew web browser could work...

Quote
DrLucky
what about remotely controlling a Windows computer from the Wii? that could work.. I used logmein to control my computer via a web page on another computer. Maybe a pluggin for a future homebrew web browser could work...

Hey, that's a cool idea. Woohoo. I like the creativity here. :-)

well, if there is any computers on the connection your wii is on, maybe......

Think of the headlines

WII TURNS COMPUTERS INTO ZOMBIES!!!!

lol

[www.tightvnc.com] is open source. It would not take a huge amount of time to port the client to wii.

ah yes, VNC would work to... probably better than a Wii browser..but I think logmein is safer.

Would logmein work on the Wii? I think this is a commercial remote desktop viewer there are others like gotomypc.

whenever using logmein(web based) you have to first install a plugin to either firefox or IE to use...it doesn't work on PSPs, ipod Touches or Safari without some sort of specialized plugin