On Fri, 16 Jul 1999 14:54:01 +0200 (CEST), Matthias W�chter wrote:
Currently we have the same BIOS interface as the 8086 (except for the INT16 Bios extensions which are not used by some OSes, sadly, Linux too in opposition to NT and Win98).
Linux can't really take advantage of *any* BIOS routines (OK, outside of the loader and such), even when Win98 can. The reason is simple: Linux is cross-platform. Alphas don't have the same BIOS as PC's, which don't have the same BIOS as Macs which don't have the same BIOS as a Sun. So how could Linux use a BIOS routine that isn't commonly available.
Now, there is a way that Linux could make use of BIOS calls (if they really wanted to) without losing cross-platform objectives: let the C compiler libraries use BIOS calls. But there, you run into the same problem. The C compiler used for Linux (GCC) is cross-platform, too. So, they don't want to use the BIOS, either!
In any kind of portable OS, any feature that isn't available on all systems is a liability. It's something that will either increase the difficulty of porting the code to a system that doesn't support some feature, or requires additional effort to add that functionality to a particular port.
Basically, the BIOS in a modern computer is a hardware configurator and boot loader. Personally, I think that that's fine. I'm not looking for a BIOS to do anything more.
Tim Massey
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