The combination of ACPI and UEFI also gets you an interactive REPL in the pre-boot environment (UEFI shell), and (if the vendor can be bothered) meaningful self-tests of all the peripherals.
Meanwhile, I've used other devices with OpenFirmware, where the "meaningful self-test" is defined by the vendor as a no-op. This is a quality of implementation issue, and the XO-1 had a very high standard there; other OpenFirmware systems do not.
no subject
Meanwhile, I've used other devices with OpenFirmware, where the "meaningful self-test" is defined by the vendor as a no-op. This is a quality of implementation issue, and the XO-1 had a very high standard there; other OpenFirmware systems do not.