UEFI vs. BIOS install - Any adavantages?

[El Potro]

And what if the UEFI is BIOS backward compatible, that would mean I could use a UEFI setup and also boot easily from CD/DVD/BD-ROMS, thumbdrives, etc?

[smartboyhw]

And what if the UEFI is BIOS backward compatible, that would mean I could use a UEFI setup and also boot easily from CD/DVD/BD-ROMS, thumbdrives, etc?

If you know how to, Yes.

[El Potro]

OK, so those are the disadvantages. And what are the advantages? (if anybody of you know of any)

[smartboyhw]

OK, so those are the disadvantages. And what are the advantages? (if anybody of you know of any)

Advantages: BIOS will be killed in years, so it's best to start using UEFI now.

[El Potro]

Sadly this is likely to be true only because of MS plans to restrict pc user's to their malware forcing hardware producers to comply with their restrictions. Anyway I don't see why the GNU/Linux community should embrace UEFI if there are no real benefits at all. Perhaps somebody better versed in the topic should express their opinions.

[smartboyhw]

Sadly this is likely to be true only because of MS plans to restrict pc user's to their malware forcing hardware producers to comply with their restrictions. Anyway I don't see why the GNU/Linux community should embrace UEFI if there are no real benefits at all. Perhaps somebody better versed in the topic should express their opinions.

Maybe you should buy a Ubuntu pre-installed computer to avert UEFI.

[darkod]

Like oldfred, I don't know UEFI much and don't have any UEFI board. But from what I have seen here, booting the cd is not difficult, you only need to be aware that with UEFI boards the cd-rom device has two different types, the standard bios mode and the uefi mode.

If you plan to install ubuntu on UEFI you HAVE to boot the cd in uefi mode, otherwise it will not install correctly. And many people seem not to know this, so most attempted UEFI installs end in failures.

Personally i would stick with BIOS as long as it fits your requirements. There will still be number of years until it's phased out and by then you will probably want new hardware anyway.

I haven't wasted time to look into win8 and the requirements, but I have installed the preview release in VBox and it's not in UEFI mode. Yet it did install correctly and it's working. Not sure if the final version will require UEFI but the preview release doesn't seem to.

[El Potro]

Thanks for your opinion darkod. I hope somebody else that really knows UEFI good can say something else, because it seems we are all in the same situation. And by the way, is it really so necessary to mention MS crap? Who said anybody needs that?

[smartboyhw]

Thanks for your opinion darkod. I hope somebody else that really knows UEFI good can say something else, because it seems we are all in the same situation. And by the way, is it really so necessary to mention MS crap? Who said anybody needs that?

Well, sorry, that's what happened...Windows 8 wants to kill everybody (including Ubuntu) once and for all, so they used UEFI to stop other bootloaders.... So if your board supports UEFI and that you install Win 8 with a EFI shell, you can't install Ubuntu then.

[oldfred]

I very much doubt that Window can even force you to convert to secure boot on your system.
The requirement is that for a Vendor to sell a new system with Windows 8 they must turn on the secure bit in UEFI. So new computers will be an issue and several Linux vendors have somewhat different proposals on how to work around the dual boot issue. And from what I have seen so far it is even more complex.