Default bootloader
Hi there!
Time to talk a bit about which is going to be the default bootloader for i386
in next Debian release.
I (as GRUB co-maintainer) have discussed with Jason the possibility of GRUB
being the default bootloader for i386 in Debian 3.1, and we agree that GRUB is
now mature enough for that.
Let me summarise the reasons why I believe GRUB is a good option:
- Clean dessign. While GRUB's dessign is far from perfect, it is still a
very flexible one. GRUB understands filesystems and network protocols,
making it able to load kernels dynamicaly from the disk or the network,
without need to reinstall into the MBR with every kernel update.
- Multi-kernel support. GRUB supports many kernels other than Linux. By
adhering to the Multiboot Specification, the Hurd and other Multiboot
compliant kernels can be loaded by GRUB. In addition, it's able to load
the kernel of FreeBSD, the kernel of NetBSD and the kernel of OpenBSD.
This is specialy interesting for Debian, since we intend to provide Debian
flavors based on these kernels. Setting GRUB as the default bootloader will
make it easy for Debian GNU/Linux users to try its kernel-cousins.
- Popularity. It's obvious there's no precise counter for popularity, but
looking at the references we have around my impression is that GRUB is
the most popular bootloader in the free software community:
GRUB is already the default bootloader or preferred option in:
- Red Hat (http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/RHL-7.2-Manual/install-guide/s1-guimode-bootload.html)
- Gentoo (http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/gentoo-x86-install.xml)
- Mandrake (http://doc.mandrakelinux.com/MandrakeLinux/91/en/Quick_Startup.html/misc-params.html#drakxid-setupBootloader)
According to Popularity Contest [1], 141 participants use GRUB regularly,
while 304 use LILO regularly. According to a recent poll in Debian Planet
[2], a few more participants prefer GRUB over LILO. (Obviously, the latter
is not as accurate as one could expect, but it serves as an indication)
[1] http://people.debian.org/~apenwarr/popcon/results...UNKNOWN...html
(Results as of Nov 18 13:05:35)
[2] http://www.debianplanet.org/node.php?id=1004
If we consider the "advantage" of LILO being default, the results indicate
GRUB is much more popular:
More than 1/2 of participants in Debian Planet's poll, and almost 1/3 of
Popularity Contest partitipants preferred GRUB. All these people switched
from LILO to GRUB _after_ having tried LILO, but it's very unlikely that a
significant part of the 1/2 or the 2/3 of LILO users ever tried GRUB.
Expecting to hear some feedback from the Debian Installer hackers about what
the requirements are, and gladly disposed to address them.
--
Robert Millan
"[..] but the delight and pride of Aule is in the deed of making, and in the
thing made, and neither in possession nor in his own mastery; wherefore he
gives and hoards not, and is free from care, passing ever on to some new work."
-- J.R.R.T, Ainulindale (Silmarillion)
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