PushingJelly

With Apple’s introduction of Intel based Macs, the world of tech was hoping for a choice. We were collectively hoping that we would have the choice to run our Macs with OS X and be happy pretty much most of the time. Occasionally, when the needs arise, we would boot into Windows on the same machine and do our stuff then boot back to Mac.
The more hopeful thought that with the addition of a program like WINE or the like, we wouldn’t even have to reboot, just fire up the application and have access to all those pesky PC applications that have yet to arrive at the Mac’s superior door.
Apple, being the pain in the arse forward thinking company they are, chose to dump Open Firmware and ignore BIOS (rightly), instead plumping to adopt Intel’s EFI firmware for the new hardware platform. The result is that Windows XP will not run on the new machines despite them being essentially just PCs under the shiny covers.
No problem (we thought), we’ll just wait until MS Vista, the new great hope for Microsoft. Vista, in it many guises was going to support EFI and all would be good with the world.
This week a Microsoft engineer at an Intel developer conference dropped a bombshell. Most versions of Vista will not support EFI, instead they will only use BIOS. EFI support, as it currently is under Win2003 Server, will only be offered in Vista 64Bit server version.
One has to ask why this is the case. Why would MS remove this support from their core product, surely they are not that scared of Apple. Their reasoning was this, there aren’t enough machines with EFI support to warrant the development of EFI support.
Hmm, does the phrase “chicken and egg” come to mind? Of course no-one is making 32bit mobos with EFI, the primary OS provider for the platform doesn’t support it.
Developers are crying out for the extensible clean architecture that EFI provides, but no-one is going to spend time and money on it. Intel have an EFI chipset of course, Apple are using it in the new Macs, so it is more than possible.
Looking at the UFEI website, the EFI trade association, all the major manufacturers are affiliated; Dell, IBM, AMI, Microsoft, Phoenix, odd then that there is an apparent dearth of mobos to run it on.
Personally, I think it is a time issue. MS are so behind shipping Vista, more and more planned features (and I mean core features not just the fancy bits) are being chopped out to meet their targets. Apparently “Steve” once said that “real artists ship”. Perhaps Mr Gates, Ballmer et al are taking some advice.