On Mon, Sep 15, 2025 at 1:17 PM home user via users <users@lists.fedoraproject.org> wrote: > The term "BIOS" seems to be overloaded. It seems to have a broad > meaning referring to "firmware", "software" that is "built-in" to the > motherboard (or CPU?). It also seems to have a narrower meaning (for > desktops) referring to firmware other than "UEFI".
BIOS was originally the Basic Input/Output System (or Service) provided on the motherboard that allowed you to control various aspects of the hardware. UEFI is more-or-less the modern replacement for BIOS, but is still commonly referred to as "BIOS". Both BIOS and UEFI are typically firmware and can be upgraded (or downgraded within limits). > Do I have any choice or control over whether the new desktop (already > ordered) will be UEFI or the older BIOS, or is that already set once the > hardware has been put together? Any modern system will be UEFI. It *may* provide an option for "legacy BIOS" support. OS's in general are moving away from (legacy) BIOS - you really want UEFI. If you want to enable Secure Boot that will *require* UEFI. You should want Secure Boot unless you have a strong reason not to. -- _______________________________________________ users mailing list -- users@lists.fedoraproject.org To unsubscribe send an email to users-le...@lists.fedoraproject.org Fedora Code of Conduct: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/project/code-of-conduct/ List Guidelines: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines List Archives: https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/users@lists.fedoraproject.org Do not reply to spam, report it: https://pagure.io/fedora-infrastructure/new_issue
