A Web Browser in Your BIOS?

Anonymous Coward points to this article on xbitlabs.com, which begins "At the recently held Computex show in Taipei Phoenix Technology Company introduced its new FirstBIOS based on Linux. Among the major advantages of this product, they mentioned such things as PC wake from different standby modes and integrated means of rapid PC recovery in case of failure." That's not all, though -- the article goes on to say that "the most remarkable thing is that you will be able to get access to Internet directly from this interface either via the traditional modem or local network. In this case the data will be stored in NTFS, FAT32 and ext2 file systems. According to Phoenix, all these features fit into 16Mbit Flash memory."

can you say..

[r00tarded]

scope creep? wtf does my BIOS need a friggin web browser? sheesh!

Re:Bloat? or not

[hbackert]

The webpage of FirstView Connect 2.0 [phoenix.com] clearly states that it includes a browser, with Flash and Java and JavaScript.

And about the modem and recovery thingy: I hope it includes a LAN connection with PPPoE/DHCP/fixed IP addresses. Otherwise I would have problems to connect to anywhere.

Of course, if it's more an information appliance, then typically a ISP will hand yout those, and it will be adopted to the ISPs networking standards.

Lynx is very nice

[jhines]

Putting Lynx, in the bios would be nice, it could manage all the features in the BIOS, and support FTP and HTTP installs over the net.

The ability of the BSD's to be installed via a pair of floppies, and a net connect is a very handy feature.

Re:Lynx is very nice

[GigsVT]

installed via a pair of floppies, and a net connect is a very handy feature.

You can do the same thing with Red Hat.

Re:Welcome to the 1990s

[Elbereth]

Umm, that should be "(command)-(option)-O-F" to enter OpenFirmware on a Mac. I shouldn't have used brackets. Oh well.

Stupid Slashdot making me wait two minutes to post again... sometimes I wonder why I bother.

It's not a BIOS but an "information appliance" OS

[isdnip]

This is such classic Slashdot... the O.P. sees the Phoenix name, assumes BIOS, and posts a story to that effect. Lots of comments are based on the same idea, though nobody bothers to click through to the original link.

FirstView Connect 2.0 is not a PC BIOS. It's listed as being for "information appliances" and other semi-computers, like set top boxes. For them, where a hard disk is unusual, a powerful ROM is a good developers' tool. Many developers like the Linux environment, so it's attractive to them. Some of these are a lot like miniature PCs; for instance, the PC/104 form factor is a hand-sized stackable card with an ISA bus, often used for compact embedded systems (it usually costs more than a full-sized motherboard). But FirstView is not aimed at generic PC motherboards.