[LinuxBIOS] OFW vs LinuxBIOS or C vs Forth?

[ron minnich]

On 5/3/07, Richard Smith <smithbone at gmail.com> wrote:
> Bari Ari wrote:
> > C vs Forth.
> >
> > Does anyone know if this was the main reason for the switch from
> > LinuxBIOS to OFW? What were the other issues involved and why did OFW
> > seem to be a better fit for OLPC? Were there any other politics involved
> > (logic vs feelings, corporate, personal agendas or governmental
> > influences, etc.)?
>
> Yes.  I know all the gory details.  I'll write up something later on
> discussing it.

I'd rather it not be posted to this list. It's just too much flame
bait. We can start a private discussion, I suppose.

The folks who made the call had their own reasons for making that
decision. We should  respect their judgement.

I think the real issue is this: this year, and in coming years, 10s of
millions of computers are going to be shipped with an open source
bios. Viewed in light of that important point, the choice of which
BIOS is used is of no real importance. I think the vendors who are not
willing to support an open source BIOS on their CPUs are in trouble,
whether they know it or not.

So, that's what matters. In 10 or 15 years, the BIOS landscape will be
unrecognizable, as will (I hope) the OS landscape. But, we can hope
that it will be open source, not closed source, that wins.

thanks

ron