Re: Dell BIOS Changes
On Tue, Jan 28, 2020 at 08:43:07AM -0700, ghe wrote:
> On 1/27/20 10:13 PM, J. D. Leach wrote:
>
> > I suspect Microsoft is back to trying to squelch the use of software
> > other than what it approves of.
>
> "Sells" you mean...
>
> I bought a Dell laptop a couple years ago, and it had a 'BIOS' like you
> describe. But there was an option in the several pages of BIOS to use
> 'Legacy' mode. It wasn't like any legacy BIOS I'd ever seen, but I did
> manage to get it to boot a civilized OS.
>
> I just looked at servers on their website, and they have a feature they
> call "Optional Operating System". That implies they are available
> without Windows and will boot Debian. Servers, anyway.
>
Dell, like some other large companies, ends up with competing interests.
There are parts of the company which are very Linux friendly (as can be
seen by some of the projects on their GitHub page [0], like the
thunderbolt for Linux driver and BIOS flash for Linux utility they
maintain). This applies mostly to servers and enterprise products, but
there are actuall workstations, laptops, etc. that have good support for
non-Microsoft operating systems. They even sell a laptop with Ubuntu
pre-installed (the XPS 13" Developer Edition).
But then, when it comes to consumer-targeted products, the customer
there wants to dictate what can and cannot be done (bearing in mind that
the customer is actually Microsoft, not the purchaser of the computer
itself). That's why most of those systems (i.e., non-servers) end up
with locked down EFI configurations and hardware which is not well
supported or flat out won't work with Linux.
That's just how it goes.
Regards,
-Roberto
[0] https://github.com/dell
--
Roberto C. Sánchez
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