Blog hosted on a Nintendo Wii (blog.infected.systems)

Article summary

The author has successfully hosted a blog on a Nintendo Wii console, using NetBSD as the operating system and lighttpd as the web server. The Wii's single-core 'Broadway' CPU and limited RAM presented some challenges, but the author was able to optimize the setup to serve static content. The blog is now live and serving content, with the author monitoring its performance and making adjustments as needed. The experiment demonstrates the possibility of running a production workload on unconventional hardware.

Main themes

• Unconventional computing
• NetBSD on Wii
• Low-power servers
• Retro gaming consoles
• Homebrew and hacking

What commenters say

• It is possible to run a web server on older consoles like the NES, but it would require significant work and creative solutions to overcome the hardware limitations.
• The Nintendo DS is a more feasible option for running a web server due to its built-in Wi-Fi capabilities and available Linux ports.
• Running a general-purpose operating system on a game console can be a fun and educational experiment, but it may not be the most practical or efficient solution.
• The line between 'cheating' and legitimate experimentation is blurry when it comes to pushing the limits of old hardware, and different approaches can be seen as more or less acceptable depending on the context.
• Some commenters believe that serving web pages on older consoles is not worth the effort, as the resulting setup would be slow and limited, while others see it as an interesting challenge and a way to learn about low-level programming and hardware optimization.
• The availability of Ethernet connectivity and sufficient RAM are major factors in determining whether a console can be used as a web server, with sixth-generation consoles being more suitable for this purpose than earlier models.