Re:Raspberry Pi 4 can finally boot directly from USB
by userbinator on Saturday September 19, 2020 @12:58AM
(#24525220)
Bootloader available to view the source for, if not completely open source.
...also known as the original IBM PC/XT/AT, which had the BIOS source code available, although still copyrighted to IBM. However, documentation for everything was in general very well done, and the IBM PC Technical Reference manuals had schematics too.
An older (preferably pre-ME, pre-EFI, pre-secure-boot) standard x86 PC, which you might be able to get for free (although "retrocomputing" enthusiasts have driven demand and cost up), I would consider more open than the RPi ecosystem. More relevantly to the article, they have also been able to boot from USB since the mid 2000s. ;-)
...also known as the original IBM PC/XT/AT, which had the BIOS source code available, although still copyrighted to IBM. However, documentation for everything was in general very well done, and the IBM PC Technical Reference manuals had schematics too.
An older (preferably pre-ME, pre-EFI, pre-secure-boot) standard x86 PC, which you might be able to get for free (although "retrocomputing" enthusiasts have driven demand and cost up), I would consider more open than the RPi ecosystem. More relevantly to the article, they have also been able to boot from USB since the mid 2000s. ;-)