> VGA text mode should always be available. Surprise: it's not. Even on PC hardware there are cards right now that will not render VGA modes correctly, or on a

> VGA text mode should always be available. Surprise: it's not. Even on PC hardware there are cards right now that will not render VGA modes correctly, or on all monitors. And what if you have two VGA cards? It's more common these days to have two VGA cards rather than one, and you simply have no way to use two cards simultaneously with standard PC VGA. > Not all of that complication is necessary, however. Sure, but it is there, and the dream of going back to a platform where everything is standarized at the IO register level is just wishful thinking.