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Personally I'd love to have a dev Chromebook. The software stack running on it is second to none. Even the BIOS is light-years ahead any Windows/Linux box. As

Personally I'd love to have a dev Chromebook. The software stack running on it is second to none. Even the BIOS is light-years ahead any Windows/Linux box. As for OSX I'm not familiar with the boot process.

dabockster 9y ago
> As for OSX I'm not familiar with the boot process. Basically a mix of UEFI and their proprietary SMC controller on the system board. The SMC is actually kind of nice to have since it means that the actual boot sector is more sandboxed.
- bogomipz 9y ago
  >"The SMC is actually kind of nice to have since it means that the actual boot sector is more sandboxed." Can you elaborate on this? How does the boot sector sandboxing work exactly?
  - dabockster 9y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_Management_Controller https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_Management_Controller It's primary purpose is largely DRM, but I'm guessing it has to store a large portion of boot information on the chip as to prevent a Mac drive from booting in a standard x86 tower.
    - bogomipz 9y ago
      Thanks, yeah I'm familiar with the SMC but this is the first I've heard of it in the context of boot sectors. There wasn't much in the wikipedia link about that. Also the primary purpose of an SMC is not DRM, but battery, fans, power management etc.
somethingsimple 9y ago
> The software stack running on it is second to none. Can you elaborate on that? I thought ChromeOS was just a stripped down Linux with just enough to run Chrome and whatever other Google stuff they have on it.
- bubblethink 9y ago
  There's the dm-verify path. In a locked down configuration, the os is updated as binary deltas. Your system partition is read only. You lose the flexibility of a general os though.
Romanulus 9y ago
The BIOS of a system has not once ever factored into my decision making about a tech purchase. Please elaborate...?
- bubblethink 9y ago
  Look up coreboot and libreboot.
- orbitingpluto 9y ago
  1) If you can't disable Secure Boot you might not be able to boot an alternative non-Windows operating system. 2) Some tablets use a 32-bit UEFI while supporting a 64-bit operating system. Nobody supports that. You're stuck with Windows again. 3) Can you turn on Wake On Lan features on the desktop? I played with geoproximity on my phone to send wake up packets when I got within 200m of home. 4) Can you disable Intel's Trusted Platform on your computer? Many people don't trust having an undocumented system in total control of their computer.

dabockster 9y ago

> As for OSX I'm not familiar with the boot process. Basically a mix of UEFI and their proprietary SMC controller on the system board. The SMC is actually kind of nice to have since it means that the actual boot sector is more sandboxed.

bogomipz 9y ago
>"The SMC is actually kind of nice to have since it means that the actual boot sector is more sandboxed." Can you elaborate on this? How does the boot sector sandboxing work exactly?
- dabockster 9y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_Management_Controller https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_Management_Controller It's primary purpose is largely DRM, but I'm guessing it has to store a large portion of boot information on the chip as to prevent a Mac drive from booting in a standard x86 tower.
  - bogomipz 9y ago
    Thanks, yeah I'm familiar with the SMC but this is the first I've heard of it in the context of boot sectors. There wasn't much in the wikipedia link about that. Also the primary purpose of an SMC is not DRM, but battery, fans, power management etc.

somethingsimple 9y ago

> The software stack running on it is second to none. Can you elaborate on that? I thought ChromeOS was just a stripped down Linux with just enough to run Chrome and whatever other Google stuff they have on it.

bubblethink 9y ago
There's the dm-verify path. In a locked down configuration, the os is updated as binary deltas. Your system partition is read only. You lose the flexibility of a general os though.

Romanulus 9y ago

The BIOS of a system has not once ever factored into my decision making about a tech purchase. Please elaborate...?

bubblethink 9y ago
Look up coreboot and libreboot.
orbitingpluto 9y ago
1) If you can't disable Secure Boot you might not be able to boot an alternative non-Windows operating system. 2) Some tablets use a 32-bit UEFI while supporting a 64-bit operating system. Nobody supports that. You're stuck with Windows again. 3) Can you turn on Wake On Lan features on the desktop? I played with geoproximity on my phone to send wake up packets when I got within 200m of home. 4) Can you disable Intel's Trusted Platform on your computer? Many people don't trust having an undocumented system in total control of their computer.