Hardware Why do people keep calling the System Menu "firmware"?

[JoostinOnline]

Seriously, the System Menu is no more firmware than the Mii Channel is. Does anybody know where this nonsense about it being firmware started?

Edit: I know it may look like it is a troll thread, but I really would like to find out where it started. The oldest thing I remember calling it "firmware" was Wanin's safe updater apps. I also see it in guides and ModMii (although that's also a guide).

 

[Hyro-Sama]

Was this thread even nessacary?

 

[JoostinOnline]

I know it may look like it is a troll thread, but I really would like to find out where it started. The oldest thing I remember calling it "firmware" was Wanin's safe updater apps.

 

[Hyro-Sama]

STOP LURKING, PINKIE.


You're right, it does seem like a troll thread. Although, I do agree that people shouldn't call the Wii System Menu "firmware".

 

[DJPlace]

i don't call it firmware i just call it system menu. plus this just occured to me why are people calling it that? and firmware is more like Playstaion reltead?

 

[Bladexdsl]

i call it the gui or theme

 

[kthnxshwn]

Is this thread a joke or do you guys honestly not know what firmware is?

 

[Snailface]

"Why do people keep calling the System Menu "firmware"?

People associate System Menu with firmware because a System Menu version upgrade is usually accompanied with AP. There's no other convenient term is there?

They don't care about jargon, they just know that if Nintendo says "Would you like to update to System Menu 4.4?", they would know its probably a bad thing. They call it firmware because it's a familiar word that's synonymous with AP.

 

[JoostinOnline]

Is this thread a joke or do you guys honestly not know what firmware is?

Please explain how the System Menu is firmware.

@Snailface: I guess that would explain it.

 

[Hielkenator]

Most people have no idea how the Wii system is contructed.
Acctually every "part" ( ios, etc...) of the Wii's sytem menu is a firmware on it's own if you would look at it that way....

If you have the latest system menu version updated the official way or via a disc you can be certain that you'll have the latest "parts" up to that verson.
BUT the version of the "gui" is also just a part of the Wii system menu also.

It's easier to say "firmware" than to say "system menu 4.1 with latest cummulative active ios's from 4.3"...lol
Makes the Wii a lot more understandable....( acctually the ios numbers are more of an indcation what in them.... etc..)
Though mandatory for a normal working Wii, the system menu version say's nothing about how up to date you are in regards to playing retail games or homebrew. You basicly can have a sytem menu 2.2 and play the latest games if you know how to update the other parts.

 

[BasedKiliK]

This is kinda like how people tend to call hacking a PSP "jailbreaking" it.

 

[jefffisher]

the actual reason system menu is firmware: it is embedded in a nonremovable memory on the system, the system can not function without it, it has control over hardware and low level functions such as adding sdhc support and loading chanels from SD. in fact the only reason you wouldn't call the system menu firmware is the fact that it's rewrittable but by that far outdated defintion nothing has had true firmware since the early ninties even the firmware in dvd drives, hard drives, televisons monitors, and literally everything else is software flashable. by the true and outdated defintion of firmware it means not replacable without replacing hardware so by your logic what's next joostin, you going to complain about 360's disc drive flash being called firmware? we aren't in the 80's anymore the WII's system menu is firmware.

 

[kthnxshwn]

This is kinda like how people tend to call hacking a PSP "jailbreaking" it.

Well, not really. The end user who uses these mods (Pandora, whatever else has come out in the past two years) aren't doing any of the "hacking"

 

[JoostinOnline]

the actual reason system menu is firmware: it is embedded in a nonremovable memory on the system, the system can not function without it, it has control over hardware and low level functions such as adding sdhc support and loading chanels from SD. in fact the only reason you wouldn't call the system menu firmware is the fact that it's rewrittable but by that far outdated defintion nothing has had true firmware since the early ninties even the firmware in dvd drives, hard drives, televisons monitors, and literally everything else is software flashable. by the true and outdated defintion of firmware it means not replacable without replacing hardware so by your logic what's next joostin, you going to complain about 360's disc drive flash being called firmware? we aren't in the 80's anymore the WII's system menu is firmware.

Actually a lot of that is wrong. Nothing runs under the System Menu. It can be removed. The Wii will operate without it (it won't do much though). It doesn't perform low-level operations. I don't think you understand how the Wii runs.

 

[jefffisher]

the actual reason system menu is firmware: it is embedded in a nonremovable memory on the system, the system can not function without it, it has control over hardware and low level functions such as adding sdhc support and loading chanels from SD. in fact the only reason you wouldn't call the system menu firmware is the fact that it's rewrittable but by that far outdated defintion nothing has had true firmware since the early ninties even the firmware in dvd drives, hard drives, televisons monitors, and literally everything else is software flashable. by the true and outdated defintion of firmware it means not replacable without replacing hardware so by your logic what's next joostin, you going to complain about 360's disc drive flash being called firmware? we aren't in the 80's anymore the WII's system menu is firmware.

Actually a lot of that is wrong. Nothing runs under the System Menu. It can be removed. The Wii will operate without it (it won't do much though). It doesn't perform low-level operations. I don't think you understand how the Wii runs.

i think you are too picky with your words and a troll so i guess it all works out.

 

[JoostinOnline]

the actual reason system menu is firmware: it is embedded in a nonremovable memory on the system, the system can not function without it, it has control over hardware and low level functions such as adding sdhc support and loading chanels from SD. in fact the only reason you wouldn't call the system menu firmware is the fact that it's rewrittable but by that far outdated defintion nothing has had true firmware since the early ninties even the firmware in dvd drives, hard drives, televisons monitors, and literally everything else is software flashable. by the true and outdated defintion of firmware it means not replacable without replacing hardware so by your logic what's next joostin, you going to complain about 360's disc drive flash being called firmware? we aren't in the 80's anymore the WII's system menu is firmware.

Actually a lot of that is wrong. Nothing runs under the System Menu. It can be removed. The Wii will operate without it (it won't do much though). It doesn't perform low-level operations. I don't think you understand how the Wii runs.

i think you are too picky with your words and a troll so i guess it all works out.

Lol, don't feel bad, the Wii's architecture is very different from other systems.

 

[T3GZdev]

i don't call it firmware i just call it system menu. plus this just occured to me why are people calling it that? and firmware is more like Playstaion reltead?

heres teh way i see it
iphone/pod touch, Androids firmwares version ###, computer OS version ###, game consoles & handhelds firmware versions ###
as for apps, DSiware, wiiware, 3DSware diffrent versions i just call them "the app name version ###"

 

[JoostinOnline]

i don't call it firmware i just call it system menu. plus this just occured to me why are people calling it that? and firmware is more like Playstaion reltead?

heres teh way i see it
iphone/pod touch, Androids firmwares version ###, computer OS version ###, game consoles & handhelds firmware versions ###
as for apps, DSiware, wiiware, 3DSware diffrent versions i just call them "the app name version ###"

So just because some sort of menu runs on a console, that makes it firmware?

 

[DJPlace]

i'm going sound like an idiot... but i think every system has a firmware and it's people's way of calling it what they want i guess.

 

[JoostinOnline]

The closest thing to firmware that the Wii has is the IOS's. Games, channels, and the System Menu all run under an IOS.