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UEFI, BIOS, and other confusing x86 PC (firmware) terms

M compatible x86 PCs have come with firmware since their first days. This firmware was called (the) BIOS, and so over time 'BIOS' became the generic term for 'IBM compatible x86 PC firmware' (which could come from various companies who carefully reimplemented it from scratch in ways that didn't violate IBM's copyrights).

The 'BIOS MBR' boot sequence was very limited and awkward, and a variety of features that people wanted had to be wedged in with tricks and extensions. (The giant exception to pervasive UEFI firmware is various virtualization systems, for example on Linux. All of this (mis)usage persists partly because it's short, especially when you get to phrases like 'this server is UEFI only'.

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