B.I.O.S. to lock out non-Windows code ?

[Robert Brockway]

On Mon, 6 Oct 2003, Justin Zygmont wrote:

> so much for using pheonix bios for me then, I always hated CTRL-ALT-S
> anyways:)

There is/was a proejct to create an OpenBIOS.  Maybe we just need to buy
boards and flash our own bios in ;)  It would be quite a bit of work to
do it with every box but things like being able to do a true serial
console cheaply on a PC would make it worth it.

A couple of thoughts:

I've always consider how the OpenBIOS people had intended to get around
the highly architecure specific characteristics of the BIOS.  I suspect a
minimalist abstraction layer and then everything else in Forth :)

In any case, Linux only uses the BIOS to a very limited degree, and it can
even bypass PnP in the BIOS so one wonders how much it matters that
MS-Windows will be so closely tied to the BIOS.

Now, the DRM stuff may be a serious problem if it can't be turned off.  I
see this as a civil liberties issue though (the right to use equipment you
have purchased in the way you wish).  It transcends simply computing.

Rob

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Robert Brockway B.Sc. email: robert-5LEc/6Zm6xCUd8a0hrldnti2O/JbrIOy at public.gmane.org, zzbrock at uqconnect.net
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