On Sun, Feb 16, 2025 at 3:14 AM David C. Rankin <drankinatty@gmail.com> wrote:
On 2/15/25 5:24 AM, Thorsten Kukuk wrote:
However if the cost to keep legacy boot is minimal, then I'd think twice before pulling the trigger. The costs are high. If it would be for free we wouldn't think about it.
That makes it pretty clear.
If the maintenance costs are as high as you indicate and it prevents implementing needed features, then I think you have your answer.
Before raising the axe, it may be helpful to see what other distros are doing. This is the first I've heard about the high cost of maintaining BIOS boot. I say that because I also run Arch, Debian, and Ubuntu. All provide BIOS and UEFI boot and I've not seen threads about needed to drop BIOS boot elsewhere.
While this list is a good place to get a feel for the issue, you really need to survey your paying customer base. That's where the rubber meets the road.
I'd also look at the old (albeit hated) Demming TQM approach to continue providing BIOS boot if possible. Find ways to reduce cost and complexity for the near term until you have a clear picture on how badly it will impact the paying customers.
I wish you the best in your effort, change is hard, but reverting a bad change is often harder.
Nobody is currently dropping legacy BIOS boot. It's been discussed a few times, though. Fedora has discussed it at least twice[1][2]. The second time led to dropping syslinux[3] and using GPT for BIOS systems[4], and eventually GPT for all architectures[5]. An idea that's come up a couple of times is providing a way to emulate UEFI on legacy BIOS, using either DUET from EDK2 or U-Boot. Nothing has been done on that front either. [1]: https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/devel@lists.fedoraproject.org/... [2]: https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/devel@lists.fedoraproject.org/... [3]: https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/devel@lists.fedoraproject.org/... [4]: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/GPTforBIOSbyDefault [5]: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/Anaconda_Installer_Using_GPT_on_all_a... -- 真実はいつも一つ！/ Always, there's only one truth!