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Posted on 10/03/2003 7:38:43 PM PDT by Coral Snake
Microsoft moves to integrate Windows with BIOS
Matthew Broersma ZDNet UK October 03, 2003, 17:25 BST
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A deal with BIOS maker Phoenix Technologies would allow the operating system to directly control hardware. It also raises concerns over who controls the software in PCs
Microsoft has expanded its relationship with BIOS maker Phoenix Technologies in a deal designed to more closely integrate the basic building blocks of the PC with the Windows operating system.
The relationship, announced this week, is designed to make PCs simpler and more reliable, the companies said. The move is likely to put consumer rights advocates on their guard, however, since both Microsoft and Phoenix are involved in plans to integrate digital rights management (DRM) technology at the operating system and hardware level. DRM is designed to give copyright owners more control over how users make use of software and content, but has been criticised as eroding consumer rights.
A BIOS, or basic input/output system, is the software that ties the operating system to a PC's hardware. Traditionally, it has carried out basic tasks such as hardware and system configuration, and has been standardised and simple enough to allow the installation of alternative operating systems, including Linux.
Phoenix's Core System Software (CSS) is a next-generation BIOS with a more sophisticated integration of operating system and hardware, for example making it easier for system administrators to remotely monitor the hardware configurations of their systems. CSS is designed for non-PC systems such as blade servers and embedded industrial devices as well as traditional desktops.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.zdnet.co.uk ...
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Looks to me like they're trying to make computers and their owners more dependent on Windows, while at the same time controlling content.
Glad there's competition out there, I have no intention of handing my equipment over to anyone if that's what Microsoft has in mind.
Imagine how much faster it would be to boot a computer if the entire operating system were contained in ROM.
- already been done and shipped. It's called DirectX.
Simply storing the core image, oh, sorry, that's a a 1960's analogy, rather simply storing an image of the current contents of system DRAM to HD can simulate this (some laptops used to offer this option - results in "Instant turn-on" versus a 'boot sequence' where configuration file after configuration file/driver is loaded ... part of the 'magic' in this scheme is re-programming all hardware registers in each CPU perpheral back to it's pre-power down state though) ...
Little
Just as,for reasons of lower cost, Windows Modems have never worked well under any other operating system, due to critical proprietary elements of the modulation/demodulation being in Windows,
... similarly for reasons of Digital Rights Management, other operating systems will not work well on Windows PCs, because critical elements of such things as all access to storage, display and communications devices is denied, due to the BIOS both refusing to even register at boot any device that doesn't comply with Microsoft standards, and refusing to register any device if not loading a Microsoft operating system.
Perhaps, for example, if you plug an old disk drive in, it won't work, because the BIOS, on startup, will identify that this is not a Microsoft Certified DRM Disk Drive. Or you plug a new Microsoft Certified drive into an old box, and that doesn't work, because the drive didn't get some special handshake its new DRM respecting firmware required. Or you try to boot Linux on the box, and nothing works -- the BIOS won't let you get past boot.
All the above is conjecture on my part -- I'll wager a pretty penny however that Microsoft would dearly love being in such a cat bird seat.
SO9
Okay ... of course, this overlooks those forces by the various HDW vendors that would like to see Linux capability exist for a given MB ...
True, it's all conjecture. But if you were to replace the words Microsoft with Apple, you'd be talking about the Macintoshes that are being built today. Apple controls the hardware, bios, and software. But I won't hold my breath waiting for you and others here to protest about that.
If anyone's ported another OS to the Apple I wouldn't see why not. Macs have been running Unix for over a decade.
OpenOffice 2.0 coming out shortly is supposed to be the one that gives Microsoft Office a run for its money. There will always be a Linux market, and if Microsoft pushes the envelope on control they're just going to send more people to the competition.
Windows XP does that pretty well, but if you change the hardware configuration or make other changes, you still have to boot the normal slow boot sequence. I have been spending lots of time in the last week look at computers boot up after updating the BIOS, upgrading memory, and adding peripherals.
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