Re: Is there a way to use Linux on the E450 ?

In article <slrnegnc80.deo.avenger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Andre van Eyssen <nospam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On 2006-09-15, Josh McKee <jtmckee@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

I'm curious. I keep hearing how limited (bad?) the PC BIOS is. While I
know it is more limited than OBP I have to wonder just how much of a
benefit the added functionality is. Not sure about everyone else but I
would say that my exposure to the OBP/BIOS is limited to essentially
starting the OS. With that said what are others doing where the benefit
of a more advanced firmware is advantageous?

Serial console. Ability to inventory and examine devices. Nifty forth
programs. More configurable, more flexible. Real diagnostics. Doesn't
have the brain damage of years of legacy crap (boot in first x cyls).
Predictable NIC-independant network booting. Provides a unified
configuration point for everything from display configuration to
SCSI initiator ID.

I know what some of the features are. What I'm wondering is how often
these features are actually used/needed that would justify warranting
them over the simpler PC BIOS. Aside from the serial console I can't
imagine the other features being overly useful. For example how many
forth programs have you written and for what purpose? What do you mean
by "more configurable and flexible"?

Likewise Suns 32 bit OBP systems couldn't boot a root partition larger
than 2GB. This limitation is similar to one of the characteristics,
booting within the first x cylinders, you consider brain dead for the PC
BIOS. Both platforms have long since removed this limitation.

Please note that I am not questioning the feature set of the OBP over
the PC BIOS. I'm just wondering how useful all those features are. The
systems that I've been exposed to are used to run applications within an
operating system. For these systems getting from power on to booting the
OS is about the extent of the OBP benefit. I would think that this
situation applies to the majority of systems.

Josh
.