Homebrew just an idea or if it is even possible

Shadow10

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I have no idea on how homebrew works or how it is made. I;m just popin out an idea here. lol win 3.1 for the ds.
 

WB3000

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DS Linux is linux ported to the DS. You cannot port XP, Vista, or Mac to the DS because of both system capability constraints and the obvious fact that no source code is available.

Things like a VNC client are as far as you will get with a modern OS. And the slow-use interfaces are just proof that even if you could get something like an OS to run, how would you efficiently use it?

The DS has 4MB of RAM. Enough said.
 

Vague Rant

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UltraMagnus said:
ds linux is like dos i guess, don't think you can run x on it though
This is a really awful and misleading way to describe any variety of Linux, they're fundamentally different operating systems; the fact that they both have command lines is pretty much irrelevant to the way they work.
 

Shadow10

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i remember having a old pc 486 or sumptin with a 66mhz cpu, and llike onlt 2 meggs of ram, and it ran windows 3.1, now anythung after that require more power and more ram, but i think it would be nifty to have windows 3.1, lol a classic IMO.
 

UltraMagnus

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WB3000 said:
Things like a VNC client are as far as you will get with a modern OS. And the slow-use interfaces are just proof that even if you could get something like an OS to run, how would you efficiently use it?

vnc is slow even on PC to PC... the limit there is the net connection speed

Vague Rant said:
QUOTE(UltraMagnus @ Mar 2 2009, 10:27 AM) ds linux is like dos i guess, don't think you can run x on it though
This is a really awful and misleading way to describe any variety of Linux, they're fundamentally different operating systems; the fact that they both have command lines is pretty much irrelevant to the way they work.

they are both Disk Operating Systems, no?

in honesty I know it isn't the best way to describe them, but I couldn't think of any other way to make the comparison in a few sentences.....
 

Jayenkai

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You could write a new OS instead of desperately attempting to mangle something new onto it.
Look at Woopsi, that's pretty much it right there.

Is it needed?
Well, no. Not really.
What would be better, is a suite of proggies, all running well, and a menu to flip between them.

..
So, pretty much the OS of your card..
 

OneMichael

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You could very well put Windows 3.x on there. The problem, of course, is that the DS has a different hardware setup, and would have to have a customized version of the OS. Also, as was mentioned above, the source code really isn't available. If someone really wanted to, they could program something similar.
I've seen some multi-threading examples, and they ran slow, but there's a lot to be said about tricks-of-the-trade and coding things to run with incredible efficiency. Simply put, Microsoft probably makes a more efficient system than most homebrewers can, even if Microsoft is inherently inefficient.

As was also pointed out: What would be the use? To run a game or other program, the entire OS would have to be unloaded in order to boot the game. If you wanted to get back to the OS, the best you could do is wrap some additional code to the ROM, like most flashcarts do, to reload the OS when you press a button combination. At that point, you might as well just use your flashcart's filebrowser.

If we ended up creating a very slim OS, and then standardized a method of creating small DS applications, we could potentially plug them in and run them directly on the OS. These would be low-feature programs, though, and it wouldn't be likely that we could run more than one or maybe two at a time.

You know what I'd like to see? Swap-files on the MicroSD. Expansion RAM is probably a great deal faster, but you could store a gig or two on your flash card, unlike on your RAM.
 

DanTheManMS

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But swap files can't happen on the microSD because the DS doesn't have a memory management unit (MMU). It's for this reason that DSLinux uses a very specific version of Linux that doesn't require an MMU, and why it's so prone to crashing if you don't have some additional slot-2 RAM to help it out.

Now guys, keep in mind there is a port of DOSbox to the DS. It's entirely proof of concept, runs at less than 1 fps, and the buttons don't work quite right, but it's there. That's about as good as you're going to get on the DS.
 

da_head

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lmao good old windows 3.1 i was actually around to use that thing. though the only point i see to porting it over is to play dos games, but if i'm not mistaken, there are already emulators for those kind of games for ds.
 

fgghjjkll

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[sarcasm]oh wow!!! lets go to microsoft and punch bill gates in the face for the windows 3.x source code!!!!
so then we could port it to the ds!!!![/sarcasm]
even if the nintendo ds meets the system requirements, are people gonna start from scratch?
no...i dont think so....
 

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