Not quite.

Not quite.

Posted Dec 11, 2006 7:56 UTC (Mon) by jd (guest, #26381)
Parent article: LinuxBIOS ready to go mainstream (Linux.com)

It's still not simple to install, the web pages aren't very accurately maintained, the exact level of support can be hard to find, the claim that it is a "replacement BIOS" is meaningless (Linux doesn't use BIOS calls, so you are not replacing the BIOS as much as the bootstrap), it's not included in any major distro that I know of, and documentation can be hard to find.

On the flip-side, if it's good enough for Cray, the U.N., Lawrence-Livermore Laboratories and the NSA, it is likely good enough for your average Joe User. (Last I heard, Joe Average User has a much lower reliability and quality expectation than supercomputer labs, spy agencies and nuke facilities.) The primary developers do not appear to have acquired concrete boots or any fetishes for oxygen-free deep-sea diving, so it's fair to assume that those whose idea of "loose change" is anything under a million are at least moderately pleased with their purchase.

A major problem, though, is image. I have been trying very hard and very patiently (for me, at least) to get through to assorted PHB that "LinuxBIOS" is not a distribution for embedded computers and has more than one user on the planet. This has been extremely trying on my nerves, as the mere mention of the acronym "BIOS" seems to terrify them beyond all imagining.

LinuxBIOS may well be the next "new thing", but it won't be the current "new thing" until it can get itself firmly established in the minds of those who really should be using it. What people think is true is far more influential than what is actually true. Sure, promotion is much less fun than development, and development is key to actually producing something people would use, but an idea that nobody's heard of is not much better than an idea that nobody's thought of.

(What I'd love to see is a kit for common PCs in their standard initial state, where any idiot with totally standard kit could swap their out-the-door BIOS with LinuxBIOS and back again. I'd also like to see packages for common Linux distros, with the idea of getting them eventually folded into the standard set. These are the ways of corrupting the youth - errr, educating users.)

---

(Log in to post comments)