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BoyOfDestiny
April 10th, 2007, 11:49 PM
Well, I regularly read (just read!) the digg linux/unix section:

Now Bios(phoenix) that are crippled to work ONLY with Vista!!
http://www.digg.com/linux_unix/Now_Bios_phoenix_that_are_crippled_to_work_ONLY_wi th_Vista

Well, I must say kudos to the linux bios folks...
http://linuxbios.org/index.php/Main_Page

Now who can recommend a good motherboard that works with it. My desktop recently gave up the ghost. So I have some parts to scavenge...

P.S. Pretty amazing huh? I never thought any bios would do this, worst I expected was integrating ads at boot up or something... But this takes the cake.

:mad:

mrpaco
April 10th, 2007, 11:59 PM
That has to be some sort of anti-trust violation.

TravisNewman
April 11th, 2007, 12:11 AM
That has to be some sort of anti-trust violation.
I certainly hope it is. Ugh. Bios vendors don't sell operating systems, and it's bad business sense to try to limit that.

SishGupta
April 11th, 2007, 02:40 AM
I certainly hope it is. Ugh. Bios vendors don't sell operating systems, and it's bad business sense to try to limit that.

I think the idea here is that we are moving away from a legacy bios system to EFI which Mac's have used for a while now.

The reason the new bios is vista only is because xp and lower do not support EFI.

Again I say I think because I didn't really bother to read the article.

Iandefor
April 11th, 2007, 03:08 AM
I think the idea here is that we are moving away from a legacy bios system to EFI which Mac's have used for a while now.

The reason the new bios is vista only is because xp and lower do not support EFI.

Again I say I think because I didn't really bother to read the article. This was a plain-jane BIOS, not EFI.

From Network Computing (http://www.networkcomputing.com/showitem.jhtml?docid=1421buzz2):
In a move best described as puzzling, BIOS manufacturer Phoenix Technologies inked an agreement with Microsoft that will more tightly bind Windows to the system BIOS. The goal of the agreement, both companies say, is to improve security, serviceability and deployment of Windows boxes.

darkhatter
April 11th, 2007, 03:17 AM
:confused: are they out of their *$#@&#$ mind

lamalex
April 11th, 2007, 03:24 AM
/me builds bomb. That's ridiculous. Phoenix will be getting a nasty email from me and I hope everyone else!

BarfBag
April 11th, 2007, 03:49 AM
This is outrageous. Are Pheonix BIOSes the only thing that motherboard vendors use, or are there out of the box alternatives?

Polygon
April 11th, 2007, 04:07 AM
i know my motherboard uses phoenix bios... that has to be illegal or something. Thats only reinforcing that microsoft is approaching a monopoly...

FoolsGold
April 11th, 2007, 04:17 AM
As someone mentioned in the digg comments:

"When you have to sink to the point where you pay off a BIOS manufacturer to lock people into your OS, your screwed."

Microsoft are really desperate here. They just can't handle competition.

Sunnz
April 11th, 2007, 04:47 AM
Ahhhh something must be done with this.

Remember how Vista users whine about nvidia cards and were going to file a lawsuit at the first day of the release of Vista? Well we Linux users are customers too!!!

Compucore
April 11th, 2007, 05:09 AM
There are two others that I know of right off the top of my head over here. AMI or America Mega internation I believe and Award is another. I rmeember seeing those two most often over here through the years on clone computers mostly. The bran name boxes not really since they ask the bios venders to put their corporate logo in there somewhere and limit the overclockin on the brand name systems. As for the clone motherboards it is more room to do that and not restricted by corporate venders like IBM or Dell as examples.

COmpucore



This is outrageous. Are Pheonix BIOSes the only thing that motherboard vendors use, or are there out of the box alternatives?

graigsmith
April 11th, 2007, 05:11 AM
it's a phoenix bios. ill have to make sure my next mainboard purchases will be without phoenix bios.

TheMono
April 11th, 2007, 05:24 AM
That is outrageously stupid. As many others smarter than I have already commented, there is no good reason for a BIOS maker to intentionally limit the market for their product, unless MS is paying them off more than the profit margin on resultant lost sales. One can only assume that the big motherboard makers aren't going to run with this though - certainly not Gigabyte.

ubuntu27
April 11th, 2007, 06:09 AM
We will not boy any comp loaded with Phoenix BIOS!!

Support OpenBios (http://openbios.info)

http://openbios.info

or/and http://linuxbios.org

Sunnz
April 11th, 2007, 06:26 AM
I don't get it... what's the difference between LinuxBIOs and OpenBIOs?

ubuntu27
April 11th, 2007, 07:09 AM
I don't get it... what's the difference between LinuxBIOs and OpenBIOs?

I don't know. I've read somewhere that LinuxBios is the same thing as OpenBios.
That LinuxBios was the original name and they changed it to OpenBios. Didn't find any sources to this, so I don't know if it is credible.