As the BBC recently reported, a replacement for the ageing BIOS firmware system underpinning all PCs is well on its way to reality. UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) is designed for modern hardware and should free PC makers from the square-peg-in-round-hole encumbrance that BIOS imposed. All that searching for a PS/2 keyboard and mouse is supposedly one reason that your PC takes so long to boot.
But I wonder whether it's an irrelevance to worry about the speed BIOS takes to recognise the hardware when most PCs now support a sleep or suspend function, which, with Windows 7 for example, shortens the start-up time to a couple of seconds. Admittedly this does mean a continuous low-level power consumption on standby.
But if you want the fastest start-up without leaving the computer turned on, its the better option, and it works fine with BIOS.
Maybe UEFI will demonstrate other advantages, in particular for sys-admins and IT support guys, but for the vast majority of users I think the benefits may be over-hyped.
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