@remixtures I think the only sustainable solution to this conundrum is radically open hardware and firmware. And to create sufficient demand to make this a viable business, regulations will have to require it.
There are examples like Raptor Computing and Oxide, that are successfully selling open hardware, but they are, alas, also American.
Dear Apple,
I'm disappointed you didn't bring back #OpenFirmware when you had the chance.
If you are at #39c3 and are curious about how kernel and firmware use #OpenFirmware device tree to discover hardware and how @barebox (and other bootloaders) use it when booting Linux, come by tomorrow at 13:00 at the open source firmware assembly in Hall 3 Foyer!
If you can't make it and you don't find me near the #barebox demo at the assembly, shoot me a message, I am happy to meet up and chat about all things #embedded #linux, barebox and liberating boot!
We'll walk through the barebox bootloader RISC-V webdemo at https://www.barebox.org/demo/ but many concepts apply equally well to ARM as well as booting Linux in general with other bootloaders as well. Optimally bring your own charged laptop with you.
Dear Apple,
I'm disappointed you didn't bring back #OpenFirmware when you had the chance.
Ok, had a weekend off and relaxed yesterday night doing some retro computing.
Installed #MacOSXServer #Tiger on the old #PowerMac #G5. Luckily I remembered that this machine does boot from a USB pen drive when ones uses the right commands in #OpenFirmware.
Services started: #blojsom and the #WebObjects server.
@vinishor great post, one of my last projects for #Sparc is to prepare a minimal Solaris setup for them. I was booting them over the network (“boot net” from the ok prompt) and using Jumpstart to automatically install Solaris on them.
#OpenFirmware is an intersection system on its own, you can build your own from the source from https://github.com/MitchBradley/openfirmware
Thanks @simondassow for boosting this!
Given the open source nature of Open Firmware, I'm surprised features like USB boot capability haven't been backported to older New World Macs by the community.
I have no idea if current builds would fit on 1 MB ROM present in New World Macs, or how much headroom there is for deployment of a modern OFW ROM image for even more ambitious projects without resorting to hardware mods.
#mac #osx #openfirmware #retrocomputing #ppc #ppc64 #g3 #g4 #g5 #linux #coreboot
#BIOS / #OpenFirmware in the '90s stored settings (boot order, etc) in battery-powered SRAM. If the battery died, all such settings were lost as soon as the computer was powered off.
I wonder if any BIOS developers ever considered storing this information in a partition on the hard drive itself? No worries about the battery then.
Björn Gohla
Dimly Lit Corners
Ahmad Fatoum
Neal Gompa (ニール・ゴンパ) 
Johannes Brakensiek
Marcin Cieślak
Profoundly Nerdy
lopta
ARGVMI~1.PIF