[LinuxBIOS] Some philosophy

Peter Stuge stuge-linuxbios at cdy.org
Thu May 3 15:25:51 CEST 2007


Hello Martin!

On Thu, May 03, 2007 at 08:36:01AM +0100, MARTIN WOODHOUSE wrote:
>   (I'm allowed to say "Hello, children" without giving you offence
> because I'm rising seventy-five years old and wrote my first
> computer program in 1957 --- hey, that's exactly half a century ago
> this year ! --- for a processor which, as it happens, I had built
> myself using Post Office relays amd a soldering iron.    That's,
> you might say, primitive, yes?)

But no doubt a good technology at the time.


>   Here's what one of you has just written:
>    
> >Stefan Reinauer wrote:
> >
> > B3 and newer XOs will not come with LinuxBIOS anymore.
> >
> > Instead of implementing a VSA-free version of LinuxBIOS, all machine
> > setup is done in Open Firmware now, in a forth based assembler 
> > dialect.
> 
> I'm a bit confused.  Can you elaborate how OFW can replace/differs
> from a normal/Linux-BIOS?"

OpenFirmware is a standard for BIOS software. It's used by most Apple
computers (but not the latest ones with Intel hardware), most if not
all Sun computers and many more.

OpenFirmware and LinuxBIOS logically do the same thing, they
initialize the hardware and boot an operating system at power on, but
they do it in different ways.


>   In the end, it's voltages on pins.

Very true.


>   But --- this at last is the point --- nobody can stop us putting
> those voltages where and when we want to put them.

Agreed. The problem with "PC" style computers has been that as
technology advanced not enough people took an interest to work
together for a greater good. I found it difficult to find processor
documentation when I started out so I stuck with higher level
programming languages for a bunch of years, until I finally got hold
of good tools, documentation and code so I could start programming in
assembly. While certainly not binary it's as close as you can get
while still using mnemonics. Over time I learned a lot of the x86
opcodes, but didn't use them enough for it to stick well. But I am
certain that writing assembly made me a better programmer. Knowing
the machine and concepts in the machine is important to be able to
use it with maximum efficiency.


>   And let's not get too over-awed by the people who APPEAR to 'OWN'
> what we're doing.

No, I agree. It's just bits. They represent a lot of work, but it's
still just a created model.


>   Because we can do something else if we feel like it, or at least
> if enough of us feel strongly enough about it.

This is why I think open source is so much fun. It's like a candy
store where everything is free, and you get to build beautiful candy
castles. ;)


>   And you know what?  I can put an entire Shakespeate play,
> illustrated in colour, into just over a megabyte, and Microsoft
> can't.

Illumination seems very nice.


>   That's because I am a very argumentative and arrogant old
> bastard.

I got a distinct different impression from your post however.


>   I advise you to adopt the same approach to The Wonderfful World
> Of Conputing.   It ain't theirs, it's yours.

Oh yes!


//Peter




More information about the coreboot mailing list