Increasing occurrence of platform problems

[Seth Cohn]

Actually, the real solution is the open source one, not the closed
source Apple/Sun/HP one.... for shame on you, Ben.

http://openbios.info/Welcome_to_OpenBIOS
http://www.fsf.org/campaigns/free-bios.html
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=29963
http://linuxbios.org/index.php/Supported_Motherboards

As you will see, the problem isn't the lack of code, it's the lack of
support from the very people who would most benefit: motherboard
makers.

In the same way that bugs in Linux are found and fixed quickly, Bios
should be the same way.  And you'd be able to add features (usb boot
for instance) to older motherboards now.... making them all the more
useful.


>   People are asking the IBM pee cee to be a Real Computer more than
> ever these days.  The limitations of the circa 1982 BIOS are really
> starting to poke though in places, and the edges are quite sharp.
> Device discovery?  Hardware monitoring?  Power management?
> Virtualization?  The original BIOS provided text and disk services
> which were barely adequate.  Oh, and a BASIC interpreter in ROM.
> Things have changed a little.  :)
>
>   Improvements are attempted, but there is no central authority.
> Everything is decided by de facto standard and industry consortium,
> and is then implemented by the lowest bidder, who usually substitutes
> "does it boot MS Windows and run Minesweeper without crashing in the
> first ten minutes?" for actually reading the spec.
>
>   If you don't want that, buy a single-company solution, a la Sun, HP,
> or Apple.  They'll guarantee everything works, because they control
> everything.  You'll pay a higher purchase cost, and generally have
> less freedom.  There's a direct correlation.
>
>   As Tom Jefferson said, "The price of freedom is eternal hardware
> issues", or something like that.  ;-)