I long for simpler days...
On one computer I worked on (a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away), the "load" sequence put a set of about 10 32 bit words into memory, and included the device number of the "boot device" (it could be cards, tape, paper tape, or disk). The next operation was to execute this sequence to read in the first record from the designated media and continue the process. It was the responsibility of the provider of the media to correctly do the rest of the job. The BIOS we have today has gotten a bit far from its original task (to get an operating system in place) and has provided all sorts of hooks, and other grunge to make it "easy" for normal humans to do such a simple task.
The biggest problem is that the BIOS/UFEI stuff is masked and hidden from us "mere mortals" that have to get a job done. Perhaps if it were open source and examined by lots of eyes/minds it wouldn't so fragile.
One of these days motherboard vendors will listen, but I'm not holding my breath.....
Biting the hand that feeds IT
