It took a while, but now adventurous Cube owners can run their own programs through Nintendo's purple little box.
The PS2 is the leading system in the industry, so modders would naturally flock to it and tinker around with the insides. The Xbox is a modder's dream, virtually ready to go for mod chips and other alterations. The GameCube, with those pesky optical discs and lack of standardized connection ports, has basically been shelved by anyone who deems themselves "hardcore" in the modding scene.
Well, not anymore. The Viper GC chip, once installed in the GameCube, will allow users to run code from flash memory through the GameCube. Homebrew and other programs (such as Linux) can be run straight off that game console we all know and love.
Obviously, we here at PGC frown upon anyone using this or any sort of mod chip for the purposes of playing "free" games, copied games, ROMs or other such evil things. It's just nice to see that those who are into this sort of thing see potential in the GameCube hardware for purposes other than a game machine.
Thanks to Ecrofirt for the tip!