this post was submitted on 11 Jan 2026
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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So basically homebrew is a mod for the Wii that basically changes some things about the os so that you can install just about anything you want through the homebrew channel, with it you can play emulators and arcade games and do some semi useful stuff like ftp or media player with visualizer and there are some apps for preventing bricking as well as restoring functionality to some games such as enabling online modes to Mario kart and some other things.
It is pretty easy to do, it is easier than creating a bootable flash drive for Linux because you dont have to flash anything, you just unzip a file to an SD card and pop it in and away you go. It is pretty fun too because after you go through the initial boot you get a message containing an image of a red envelope containing a cartoon bomb and next thing you know you have a channel which shows you a bubble screensaver (this is what the channel is like before you put any apps on it which is equally as easy to do)
https://wii.hacks.guide/
Neat! I'm somewhat familiar with homebrew but I haven't kept up with it in years. I didn't know you could put Linux on it too
I wonder how it would do as a media center for the living room. I'd much rather use a Wii remote to navigate on a TV instead of buttons.
Being able to play Jellyfin off of it somehow would be amazing, I imagine it will need a custom app. Possibly based off of this thing? https://www.wiimc.org/about/
A Wii u might be better than a Wii. It was pretty underpowered from day 1 and that thing has no hardware video decode. The wiiu has hardware video decode for h264 video.
I have heard of people putting main linux on wiis but in my case I didn't do that niiofetxh just happens to be a neofetch fork for wii on the homebrew list of apps.
This is the bulk of where I got apps from https://oscwii.org/library
Yeah I put Linux on the Wii. It ran ICEwm. Very slow using a browser due to only 100MB of RAM and writing to the SD card. Acceptable performance as headless Linux, but the kernel couldn't install cifs (due to kernel size restriction) or some other tools