On Thu, Jul 02, 2020 at 01:16:43PM +0300, nickysn(a)gmail.com wrote:
The only Windows that no longer supports 32-bit systems is Windows
Server. So the obsolescence of Windows 7 and XP is irrelevant.
I'm not talking about *old* hardware here, which obviously works as well
now as it did before. I'm talking about *new* hardware, which is
vanishingly unlikely to have been tested with anything other than the
current Win10 release.
As Win10 certification does not mandate testing of BIOS/CSM modes, and
all Windows versions that did require that have been completely EOL'd,
new hardware purchased today is likely to only have had the most cursory
testing in BIOS/CSM mode.. if it has BIOS/CSM support at all. (see:
"Intel Dropping BIOS mode by 2020")
So, yes, BIOS/CSM mode works fine for older hardware, but the simple
fact of the matter is that it is going away for new hardware, so it is
no longer something that can be assumed to be there or be more
functionally stable than UEFI.
In other words, if there are bugs/quirks/UX flaws/whatever in the
Fedora's UEFI boot flow, we can no longer just say "oh, just switch to
BIOS/CSM booting instead" as a functionally-acceptible workaround.
But take away BIOS/CSM, and the massive complexity of grub2 becomes
simply unnecessary. Simpler alternatives _should_ be considered.
(Of course, Fedora will need to continue supporting BIOS-based systems
for some time into the future. Speaking for myseelf, I still have two
running systems that that lack UEFI; both are AMD-platform server
boards, and the newer of the two was first made in 2007 and was EOL'd
in 2011. Plus a small pile of VMs..)
- Solomon
--
Solomon Peachy pizza at shaftnet dot org (email&xmpp)
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