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I ported Mac OS X to the Nintendo Wii

bryankeller.github.io

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Re: I ported Mac OS X to the Nintendo Wii

#41

Post by jasaldivara »

bigyabai wrote: post #34
rvz wrote: post #14

The post is a work of an actual hacker who knows what they're doing. Zero mention of "I used Claude" or "Used AI" to understand what is needed for accomplish this task. This is exceptional work. Unlike the low-effort slop posts I see here on "Show HN".

Ah, the Procrustian definition of "real hacker", where using AI disqualifies you but using Github pages is considered only a minor infraction. The build-in-public era of hacking has really turned this field into an influencer economy.

Whats wrong about Github pages?

Re: I ported Mac OS X to the Nintendo Wii

#42

Post by glenstein »

NetOpWibby wrote: post #24

Before figuring out how to tackle this project, I needed to know whether it would even be possible. According to a 2021 Reddit comment: There is a zero percent chance of this ever happening. Feeling encouraged, I started with the basics: what hardware is in the Wii, and how does it compare to the hardware used in real Macs from the era. I LOL'd

I almost think such projects are worth it just to immortalize comments like these. There's a whole psychology of wrongness that centers on declaring that not-quite-impossible things will definitely never happen, because it feels like principled skepticism.

Re: I ported Mac OS X to the Nintendo Wii

#43

Post by tverbeure »

blkhp19 wrote: post #29
efdee wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it's not working on Chrome nor Firefox, it's safe to say it's incompatible with almost all browsers.

I only tested on Safari - whoops! Fixed now.

Minor usability comment: the screenshots are too small to be readable. Whenever that's that case in my blog posts, I make those screenshots clickable and add (Click to enlarge) below it, to make it easier for readers to see the image are original resolution. In markdown, I do that like this:

[![Image comment](image_url.png) ](image_url.png)

(Of course, I can also right-click and do "Open image in new tab", but that's one click extra...)

Congrats on the awesome project, BTW! You were lucky that I wasn't sitting next to you on the plane. I would have wasted so much of your time asking dumb questions.

Re: I ported Mac OS X to the Nintendo Wii

#44

Post by geerlingguy »

rayiner wrote: post #36

Not only is this an insanely cool project, the writeup is great. I was hooked the whole way through. I particularly love this part: > At this point, the system was trying to find a framebuffer driver so that the Mac OS X GUI could be shown. As indicated in the logs, WindowServer was not happy - to fix this, I’d need to write my own framebuffer driver . I'm surprised by how well abstracted MacOS is (was). The I/O Kit…

And there are enough parallels to Linux's stack, I'm thinking about looking through the Linux on Wii project more and comparing how it handles fb issues in comparison. I loved reading this whole post, crazy how many OSes have now been run on the humble Wii!

Re: I ported Mac OS X to the Nintendo Wii

#46

Post by oceansky »

dpoloncsak wrote: post #39
nancyminusone wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gotta love that particular Redditors follow up comment: >Go ahead and downvote me. I am correct on every single thing I said

Tempted to necro a 5 year old reddit post just to tell that guy he was wrong, honestly

Comments are blocked there

Re: I ported Mac OS X to the Nintendo Wii

#47

Post by spijdar »

rayiner wrote: post #36

Not only is this an insanely cool project, the writeup is great. I was hooked the whole way through. I particularly love this part: > At this point, the system was trying to find a framebuffer driver so that the Mac OS X GUI could be shown. As indicated in the logs, WindowServer was not happy - to fix this, I’d need to write my own framebuffer driver . I'm surprised by how well abstracted MacOS is (was). The I/O Kit…

IOKit was actually built from the ground up for OS X! NeXT had a different driver model called DriverKit. I've never coded against either, but my understanding was they're pretty different beasts. (I could be wrong)

That said, indeed, the abstraction layer here is delightful! I know that some NetBSD devs managed to get PPC Darwin running under a Mach/IOKit compatibility layer back in the day, up to running Xquartz on NetBSD! With NetBSD translating IOKit calls. :-)

Re: I ported Mac OS X to the Nintendo Wii

#48

Post by dewey »

jasaldivara wrote: post #41
bigyabai wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, the Procrustian definition of "real hacker", where using AI disqualifies you but using Github pages is considered only a minor infraction. The build-in-public era of hacking has really turned this field into an influencer economy.

Whats wrong about Github pages?

A real hacker would obviously never use a Microsoft product, or worse, post on a VC funded web forum!

Re: I ported Mac OS X to the Nintendo Wii

#49

Post by pa7ch »

guyzero wrote: post #17

In addition to the incredible engineering work here the OP casually flexes by showing the development happening _in an economy class airplane seat_.

I can't imagine concentrating on a complicated project like that on the go, but I went back to stare in awe at said picture and I think its a train or bus. Still a flex.

Re: I ported Mac OS X to the Nintendo Wii

#50

Post by slackfan »

guyzero wrote: post #17

In addition to the incredible engineering work here the OP casually flexes by showing the development happening _in an economy class airplane seat_.

What's flex-worthy about this? There's a lot of dev work that goes on in economy class airplane seats. Or are VC valley programmers so rich they fly business everywhere?
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