Microsoft tries to block Linux off Windows 8 PCs

[Scott Elcomb]

On Fri, Oct 21, 2011 at 8:14 AM, James Knott <james.knott-bJEeYj9oJeDQT0dZR+AlfA at public.gmane.org> wrote:
>>
>>   Did linux installs use BIOS calls???
>>
>
> As I understand it, the BIOS calls were so limited that multitasking
> operating systems bypass it entirely.  Even with DOS, it was often ignored
> because of poor performance.

They were indeed limited.  Before I began using Linux a co-worker
challenged me to write an OS.  I didn't think I'd be up to it but
after looking around I bumped into the OSDev ring of websites where I
learned a great deal about BIOS calls.  They are enough to create
simple OS's with though, and were what I used in my experiments.
After getting stuck and reading Andrew Tanenbaum's book on Minix* I
was able to get some basic multitasking working.  I then began my move
to Linux.  :-)

I can't say for certain - as I haven't looked in on it years - but for
any interested in the topic of OS development, I believe that
<http://osdev.org> is the successor to the old site ring.

-- 
  Scott Elcomb
  @psema4 on Twitter / Identi.ca

  Atomic OS: Self Contained Microsystems
  http://code.google.com/p/atomos/

  Member of the Pirate Party of Canada
  http://www.pirateparty.ca/
--
The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://gtalug.org/
TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://gtalug.org/wiki/Mailing_lists