Hacking So... Why is Linux on Switch exciting?

[Kioku]

I think he was being sarcastic...

Need a professional translator...

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Linux can be modified to do damn-near anything.

Common misconception. Sure, it's entirely open source, but you're still locked out of proprietary software/drivers. Unofficial support is also limiting.

 

[guicrith]

Negative frame rates would be really freaky though, as they would mean that things show up on the screen BEFORE you push the button.

It'd be like Hetrodyne noise-cancelling humming.

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I'd rather the tinkeres work on making new hardware. Like an actual Switch competitor running Linux.

Sadly It's been proven multiple times that people don't care about Linux on phones or tables so any attempts that are not locked down Android die off pretty quickly.

I care about linux, also android ports are never locked down they come with root access or a root plugin like lineage os, only Verizon/AT&T carrier builds which will never be ported to anything anyway are locked down, android is the user friendly version of linux and you can always run desktop linux on android if you want https://github.com/meefik/linuxdeploy

And to answer the general question:
If its running linux its proof that:
1: the bootloader has been unlocked or a custom bootloader has been made
2: that people understand the hardware already
3: emudevs will have an easy way of probing the hardware to make an emulator
4: that all emulators will work instantly without being ported when this gets released, along with kodi, webbrowsers and later even android

 

[Futurdreamz]

I care about linux, also android ports are never locked down they come with root access or a root plugin like lineage os, only Verizon/AT&T carrier builds which will never be ported to anything anyway are locked down, android is the user friendly version of linux and you can always run desktop linux on android if you want https://github.com/meefik/linuxdeploy

And to answer the general question:
If its running linux its proof that:
1: the bootloader has been unlocked or a custom bootloader has been made
2: that people understand the hardware already
3: emudevs will have an easy way of probing the hardware to make an emulator
4: that all emulators will work instantly without being ported when this gets released, along with kodi, webbrowsers and later even android

I have android on my phone, and I can buy a 7" tablet for cheap - it will even have a keyboard. And, again, any game worth playing would not be available - due to them ALL being x86 blobs.

I'm not saying putting Linux on the Switch is impossible. I'm saying putting Linux on the Switch and having it be useful is impossible.

 

[FAST6191]

I have android on my phone, and I can buy a 7" tablet for cheap - it will even have a keyboard. And, again, any game worth playing would not be available - due to them ALL being x86 blobs.

I'm not saying putting Linux on the Switch is impossible. I'm saying putting Linux on the Switch and having it be useful is impossible.

You don't reckon an environment in which multiple coding languages, hundreds of libraries and a well known series of services/features is a good thing?

Also there are a few existing repos with ARM versions of all sorts of things in.

So what if you have a phone or a tablet (I don't as a matter of fact but I am a freak apparently so I will leave that one for now), isn't that more of a reason to not bother with homebrew on the switch?

 

[Deleted User]

Linux is shit, next question, please.

 

[Jayro]

But there

Need a professional translator...

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Common misconception. Sure, it's entirely open source, but you're still locked out of proprietary software/drivers. Unofficial support is also limiting.

But there's nothing stopping you from reverse-engineering the firmwares to write your own drivers.

 

[Timburpton]

Android would be so much better, emulators and of course ANGRY BIRDS.

 

[kai_dranzer2003]

CustomRom CyanoSwitch coming soon

 

[Xathya]

Also available for Linux: http://hunspell.github.io/

oh i see ur dyslexiks to! nice to meat
il considers it but as i havst previos descrbe is not reals isues of speling but overal isues with languages and syntask and struckt

 

[Kerbangman]

One thing Linux cannot do well is USB transfer. Clams up and slows dows down.

 

[Joom]

I'd use Linux if people actually ported games over, more emulators, drivers, I'd switch over to Linux in a heartbeat if nVidia drivers would actually work.

Make them work yourself. That's the point. There's mountains of documentation on how to do so. Also, emulators? Really? There's no problems with those on Linux.

One thing Linux cannot do well is USB transfer. Clams up and slows dows down.

This is a fault of whatever flash media you're using, not Linux.

Oh, and before some assuming asshole comes along, I don't even use Linux. UNIX is UNIX is UNIX. It's all the same if you know what you're doing.

 

[guily6669]

...
PS4 is basically a PC though, it's much harder to run PC games on ARM. VirtualBox isn't an emulator, you'd need something like qemu (or DOSBox for older games) and it would be horribly slow to run a whole OS inside that.

Yeah that's for sure because of the ARM, but as long as someone could convert Red Alert 2 PC game for it I would be pretty happy and I'm almost sure that game would run fine.

Or something like Age of empires 2 or star wars strategy games from PC which don't require much specs, probably could be converted to arm and run fine.

Ps: but yeah, I know no one will lose time converting them ...

Edit: though there is a emulator on android for PC games and I have seen them running old command and conquer games, it's stupid that even the top RTS games on android are far worse than 90's PC RTS games, I wonder what EA is waiting to make all the old C&C games on android, I think the touch still works fine on that type of games...

 

[Idaho]

Well if I remember correctly, from the 34C3 conference, linux drivers for the GPU are already available, so once Linux is correctly ported and as a lot of arm compiled software is already available for Linux ever since the rpi has hit the market, we could get our hands on a lot of fancy homebrews, I just hope we could have some sort of dual-boot between linux and the switch main OS, basically I'm hoping that anything that works on the rpi would have no struggle working on the switch and if that is the case, running Linux on the switch is a pretty exciting feat...

I guess the arm version of retro-arch could work quite easily with that and a lot of other software too, like doom, quake...etc

 

[SoslanVanWieren]

I do wonder if we could use the joy cons to hack the switch by flashing custom firmware on the joy cons.

 

[Xenon Hacks]

It would be hilarious if dolphin runs on this now

 

[GerbilSoft]

To everyone complaining about how Linux is crap: Port Windows instead. Then you can play your thousands of Windows games on the Switch.

I'll be waiting.

 

[Idaho]

To everyone complaining about how Linux is crap: Port Windows instead. Then you can play your thousands of Windows games on the Switch.

I'll be waiting.

This is not how it works, you don't "port" something that you don't have the source code of, and well Windows could work on the switch, afterall there's an ARM version of it...

 

[yardie]

Linux is shit, next question, please.

you never cease to amaze me with your dumb posts

 

[GerbilSoft]

This is not how it works dumbass and well Windows could work on the switch, afterall there's an ARM version of it...

Then port the ARM version of Windows to Switch and enjoy your expansive Windows game library.

I'm not seeing the problem here. Windows is Windows, Windows programs run on all Windows systems. That's the reason why people use Windows after all, isn't it?

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Yeah that's for sure because of the ARM, but as long as someone could convert Red Alert 2 PC game for it I would be pretty happy and I'm almost sure that game would run fine.

Or something like Age of empires 2 or star wars strategy games from PC which don't require much specs, probably could be converted to arm and run fine.

Ps: but yeah, I know no one will lose time converting them ...
Edit: though there is a emulator on android for PC games and I have seen them running old command and conquer games, it's stupid that even the top RTS games on android are far worse than 90's PC RTS games, I wonder what EA is waiting to make all the old C&C games on android, I think the touch still works fine on that type of games...

If it has a DOS version you could possibly run it in DOSBox.
Or I suppose you could try this: https://github.com/OpenRA/ra2