Pictures and News from AmiGBG Fall Event

[CodeSmith]

Quote:
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PPCBoot by Hyperion is finished and handed out to existing (35-40 or so) betatesters
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Just *how* are those "Frieden Features" applied to PPCBoot? I'm wondering since PPCBoot is a GPL project...

If the PPCBoot they are using is indeed the GPL version, they only have to release the source when they start selling the boards, so it will be a few weeks before we can play with it (I *like* the fact that I'll be able to monkey with the BIOS :-D).  Since they're still in the process of beta-testing, I'd rather wait until they're happy with it before I start looking at it.  I'm personally curious to see if they only implemented the cpu's 'real mode' (8086-80286) or 'protected mode' (80386-), and which other parts of a PC's hardware they wrote in as well.

Edit:
The reason I'm curious is because *all* PCs, even mighty P-4's, start off in 8086-compatibility mode when reset - you have to enable all the advanced (post-286) stuff by writing into a CPU register.  So it's possible that you only need 8086 mode to init the graphics card...

[CodeSmith]

@Olegil:

Uh, that 'someone' would be me  :-)
I'm not sure of the local netiquette, so when I realized that I'd forgotten to add the last part after I submitted the post, I added "Edit:" at the beginning of the new part.

BTW, the 'GPL does not mean downloadable from the web' comment is completely correct - you only have to supply the source code *to your users* (so they have the freedom to change it, etc).  This means that you only get to see the source if you bought a copy of the binary (or, in this case, a motherboard).  If this were not the case, there'd be no monetary incentive for writing code - all you need is a web browser and a compiler and you don't need to pay for any software!  :-o

This is a common misunderstanding because most people who code GPL programs also make them 'free as in free beer', so they have nothing to lose by just uploading the source to a public server.