Hacking Steam OS on Wii U?

[Henke]

It would be really cool putting steam os on the wii u.
Steam os is linux based and fully open. Can stream games from your windows machine. Meaning you don't need a super powerful device running Steam OS aslong as you have a pretty good pc with steam on it.

If regular linux can run on the wii u could this also be possible?

 

[BenRK]

Seeing as the Wii U isn't hacked yet, I don't think the question is answerable.

If I had to guess, I would say no. You have to keep in mind that a game console isn't designed quite like how a PC is regardless of the OS. Because games can be optimized for a console, specs can be less on a console then on a PC. I bet you have a computer that has a better processor and more memory then a Wii U (maybe a GPU as well, but most off the shelf computers are lack luster there), and I bet that a possible Steam Box will have better specs then a Wii U.

And that's not including possible processor architecture issues and storage space. Drivers would need to be written for stuff like the Wii U gamepad and the wireless chips, and so on. SO! Long story short, don't get your hopes up. There is a BIG difference between "regular Linux" and Steam OS.

 

[Henke]

But the specs on the steam os box dont need to be so powerful with the ability to stream the games from pc. I understand that it probably isnt going to happen but it would be really cool

 

[KDH]

MOST of SteamOS is open source and could be ported, but the most important part -- Steam itself -- is and (most likely) always will be distributed as an x86 binary. So there'd be no way to run steam on the Wii U's PowerPC processor in order to actually stream any games.

 

[Foxi4]

SteamOS is based on an x86 kernel, the games are coded for an x86 platform and while the kernel can be ported or replaced with a PPC equivalent, the games that aren't open source can't, making such a port entirely pointless.

You would have the OS but with no games whatsoever, but then again, WiiU owners are used to not having any.

I'd sooner expect a port like this for the PS4/XBox One, seeing that they have compatible hardware.

 

[Henke]

Okay, that is too bad :/

 

[The Real Jdbye]

It would be really cool putting steam os on the wii u.
Steam os is linux based and fully open. Can stream games from your windows machine. Meaning you don't need a super powerful device running Steam OS aslong as you have a pretty good pc with steam on it.

If regular linux can run on the wii u could this also be possible?

Probably, but games wouldn't run, the Wii U most likely does not support OpenGL like most embedded devices, which is required for many games. Also the games would have to be compiled for the architecture - good luck getting all the developers to do that.

SteamOS is based on an x86 kernel, the games are coded for an x86 platform and while the kernel can be ported or replaced with a PPC equivalent, the games that aren't open source can't, making such a port entirely pointless.

You would have the OS but with no games whatsoever (except the ones that'll work via WINE, if any will), but then again, WiiU owners are used to having no games.

I'd sooner expect a port like this for the PS4/XBox One, seeing that they have compatible hardware.

WINE wouldn't work either. It's a hypervisor not an emulator, it requires a x86/64 host.

 

[Foxi4]

WINE wouldn't work either. It's a hypervisor not an emulator, it requires a x86/64 host.

Fair enough, I'll redact that part of my reply then. I forgot that "WINE IS NOT AN EMULATOR".