I can't say I agree with everything in the Stallman point of view here, but having an Open Source BIOS makes a lot of sense.
First and probably the most important reason is to be able to add support for new devices to old motherboards that the manufacturers do not want to support any more, not because it comprimises the position of “free software“.
I have had to replace motherboards for silly reasons, like they won't support large hard drive sizes in the BIOS, etc. Then there are other things that could certainly be improved in the BIOS itself.
If the source were to be opened to the world at large then people motivated to change the BIOS because they like their board and want to extend the life for a while by just adding some new peripheral, then they should definately be able to do that.
Security is not the big issue here in my opinion, it is extended the useful life of a product that I purchased which drives me to support this initiative. I can use PIII motherboards for testing for a long time, but if I can't attach a 200G hard drive to it, then I may not be able to use it any more. Then there is the whole issue of how certain items like Hyperthreading are supported or turned on and off at the bios level.
I have a P-4 motherboard right now that supports hyperthreading, but I can't turn it off. This causes an incompatibility with a certain PCI Card that doesn't work right with hyperthreading.
I also have a dual P3 motherboard that won't accept a GB Ethernet card when it certainly should.
If the BIOS were updateable, then these products would have a more useful life and I could continue using these products that I paid good money for.
Arguments like:
"Neither you nor I, as a user of a computer, has any reason to change the BIOS...unless it's broken," said Jonathan Joseph, chief executive of BIOS maker Insyde Software. "You're not going to type any faster in (Microsoft) Word because you have a new BIOS. The only thing you hide in BIOS is broken hardware."
are just silly, it's not a matter of “broken” hardware, its things that the manufacturer never considered supporting and doesn't want to pay someone to write just so they can give the update away for free.
Motivated owners of the boards who are perfectly capable and willing to write these updates and should be able to access that data so they can.
"The one thing we have to worry about first is security. What do you think would happen if there was a virus that started reflashing," or rewriting, BIOS software, said Mike Goldgof, senior vice president of marketing at Phoenix Technologies.
this arguement is just a lame excuse to try to keep the data secret. In fact, after 25+ years of personal computing I am rather surprised it has taken this long for it to even have become an issue.
While Richard Stallman can have some eccentric and lunatic fringe stances, the computing world is definately a better place thanks to his contributions.
Copyright © 2003-2004 H. Steele Price, IV -
All opinions are my own, not necessarily those of my employer, your mother, or any government agency.