New subject: [OPENBIOS]: Philosophical question...

5 Feb 1999


      Matthias Wächter wrote:
...
On Fri, 5 Feb 1999, Charles Esson wrote:
...
First question. Do you think it should just replace what is there now.
Or should the job be done properly.
Of course, in my opinion, it should be done properly.
...
If you want to do the job properly, then the OS's have to change.
This is why all OSS OSes are so well suited for OpenBIOS - we just have to
write a new thing like LILO (say, OBLL, OpenBIOS Linux Loader) which
correctly interacts with OpenBIOS to have all compatible as we need it.
...
Basically the Intel PC is a mess, because the bios is a mess.
Well, ... Intel PC is a mess, because BIOS is a mess, because the original
8088-XT was a mess. Of course, it was somewhat well suited for the needs
that time (1986 or so), but I can't understand why there has nothing come
up with new features, etc.
PS: Do you want to continue talking privatly? I don't have any problem
with that though it would be interesting for the other OpenBIOS
subscribers to keep in touch with our thoughts. (feel free to reply publicly)
...
Sorry clicked the wrong dam button.
If it is agreed it has to be done properly, then we have to agree  on what the
bios should do.
1) Boot an OS
2) Provide diagnostics
3) Provide a bios  ( basic input output services )
And at all times we should remember that the PCI standard specifies that PCI
cards can supply FCODE drivers, that SUN and apple have gone down this path, and
that FREEBSD have gone down that same path.
I see no reason to reinvent the wheel but I do see a good reason to get the
FREEBSD code, unfortunately I have found the boot image but not the source, and I
have no idea who is doing the work.
Regards
Charles
...
Winschdawos,

Matthias

--
Der Wein mit der Pille ist in dem Becher mit dem Fächer.

Re: Philosophical question...