extipl, mbr--why? (was: GRUB)

[Andrew Pimlott <andrew@pimlott.ne.mediaone.net>]

On Thu, Sep 09, 1999 at 01:22:33PM +0900, Taketoshi Sano wrote:
> btw, anyone tried my "extipl" package for potato ? I think it is
> superior than current i386 "mbr" on features that it can boot up
> the system on the other hard disk (if the OS in that place can do, i.e. 
> the MS-xxx can not work. and the default is limited to the first disk)
> can change default boot partition on the first disk at booting time, 
> and can show the some information about the partitions on the disks at
> booting time.

May I ask what the point of these enhanced mbr's is, since all of these
features are available from the boot loader (eg LILO)?  I've always had my
LILO configured to boot from the floppy and alternate partitions, and this
would be fairly easy to add to the default lilo.conf for beginners.

No beginner understands what those funny letters that mbr prints mean
anyway, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who gets annoyed when they pop up
because I'm holding down shift to get the LILO prompt.

What was the rationale for adding mbr to the default configuration?

Andrew