Is the Switch the second console this generation to run FreeBSD? | Hacker News Reader

Is the Switch the second console this generation to run FreeBSD?

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70 pointsbpierre19 comments

No. The Vita also has FreeBSD listed in its OSS page because it used a lot of the network stack. That listing doesn't mean anything.

Is it or is it just a <tree.h> header from FreeBSD copied to the source code?

sys/socket.h is the most likely culprit.

Huh, looks like they're still using the netfront browser (and it's webkit internals).

https://www.nintendo.co.jp/support/oss/

Yay for exploits!

Ah, just like the 3DS.

Developing for ancient WebKit is always fun.

Correction:

* Nintendo Switch is running software from the FreeBSD Kernel

Title is misleading, it's not confirmed that Switch runs a FreeBSD base OS yet.

Which brings an interesting question, what are the techniques to get to know what OS a system uses? I know nmap can send specially crafted packets to get a fingerprint of the networking stack. Is there something else?

You can dump the disks, ROM, or firmware updates and look for known strings.

Did they confuse "Free BSD Kernel" and zlib? Jean-loup Gally and Mark Adler are the zlib authors, and don't really have anything to do with FreeBSD.

Reading the comments I'm now thinking it would be awesome to have a Switch and access my few Steam games (they run on a low powered comp) on there.

Do what? Are you saying the Switch has a Steam client?

Nah, someone was just speculating about hacking/cracking it and installing the linux steam client. Sorry to get your hopes up.

Does Steam for linux work on ARM?

Honest question, how did they expect this to work? There is no Steam client for ARM and even if there was, there are no ARM games on Steam anyway.

Isn't it a reskin of Android?

More likely reskin Android than BSD. Minimum Linux kernel.

That's been speculated, but there's no evidence for it. It uses a very similar chipset to Nvidia's Android-based Shield, which is where the rumor comes from.

I do not think based on FreeBSD. Most likely Linux kernel and decent chance Android.

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