Quote:
Originally Posted by Myrddin Emrys
Agreed. I usually indulge my cynicism more.
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Computers used to have a bios, but that had to go due to limitations. The adopted change appears to be going in the direction of a software layer called UEFI. Bios was hardware based and changes were flashed to EPROM or similar, which is hardware, UEFI is software.
Also in the past, firmware for hardware was ingrained within the hardware device before leaving the manufacture's factory, and again, if change to this software layer was required, it was flashed onto a hardware layer typically in the form of EPROM.
Today, you have a directory in /lib/firmware, where this software layer is stored for much of the hardware and is loaded by the OS on every boot, it is not ingrained within the hardware as in the past.
Your browser typically has a setting you can set to protect your software from malicious websites. What is that all about?
Many of us still refer to computer settings as bios in a UEFI computer, force of habit even if we know there is no bios in a UEFI based computer. For me to say something at the front of the drive is locked is similar to that. You may be correct in saying solid state memory is more resilient, but there is only one way to access any form of memory, which is via a controller. Standard Linux utilities don't give us the ability to do much with the controller which was typically via a silicon chip but apparently as I'm led to believe from trying to fix my buddy's Switch 10, the controller for that emmc is the UEFI firmware interface.
Firmware is software, which
can be manipulated from anywhere in the world. Read the first sentence of the Wikipedia page for firmware, you will see two key words, (software,
control)
Sounds like you are calling me, and browser design teams, cynical?
