Tuesday, June 12, 2007
BIOS vs. EFI: When's that Fight Airing Again?
Posted by Damion Chaplin in "HARDWARE" @ 04:00 PM
"In reality, I stare at my Gigabyte DQ6 motherboard and wonder why something so fundamentally perfect as to not require updating for 26 years actually requires quad-redundancy to maintain stable operation. I also wonder why once a setting (whose label is cryptic beyond belief) goes wrong, I am fiddling inside my case for that pesky CMOS jumper, which I subsequently always lose in the process. And I think to myself, this is the best it gets?"
Brett Thomas over at bit-tech.net has written a great article on that thing in our machines we all try to ignore as much as possible: the BIOS. Most of us never touch the BIOS until something goes wrong. Most people don't know it's the first step in configuring a brand new computer. Why? Because it's damned scary, even for experienced users like me. Surely there's something better, and there is: EFI. Unfortunately, it will be a while until we can enjoy the bliss of true plug-and-play, a point summed up perfectly at the end of the article:
"Much like the oil companies and car companies with alternative fuels, MS and motherboard manufacturers are in a game of chicken where whoever moves first has to swallow the market adoption costs. Yes, it is the way forward and yes there are profits for everyone down the line, but the initial costs won't be cheap."
So once again we find our progress arrested due to that little thing called 'profit'. :?
Brett Thomas over at bit-tech.net has written a great article on that thing in our machines we all try to ignore as much as possible: the BIOS. Most of us never touch the BIOS until something goes wrong. Most people don't know it's the first step in configuring a brand new computer. Why? Because it's damned scary, even for experienced users like me. Surely there's something better, and there is: EFI. Unfortunately, it will be a while until we can enjoy the bliss of true plug-and-play, a point summed up perfectly at the end of the article:
"Much like the oil companies and car companies with alternative fuels, MS and motherboard manufacturers are in a game of chicken where whoever moves first has to swallow the market adoption costs. Yes, it is the way forward and yes there are profits for everyone down the line, but the initial costs won't be cheap."
So once again we find our progress arrested due to that little thing called 'profit'. :?
