Configure-less Boot Loader

There should be no reason that anyone needs to mess around in Lilo or grub to boot from any OS. Don't get me wrong, you should be able to if you want to, but the default should be to configure itself, and be capable of identifying bootable devices to boot from. In the case of linux, you should also be able to select from a list of kernels, which are automatically identified (maybe maintain a /boot/kernels directory with symlinks to the active kernels, and design a way to have different parameters for various kernels easily)

On OSX, you simply need to hold down Option, and all bootable devices are listed. No 10 second delay needed so you can select an option, and the only option to set (if required) is the default bootable device. I should also point out that the Apple implementation also allows you to easily identify the operating systems due to the use of icons. Maybe we can learn something off the rEFIt project for Mac (http://refit.sourceforge.net/screen.html). Changing the default startup disk in OSX is performed entirely via the GUI too (if preferred). It should be this easy on Linux.


Grub would need to be modified to look for specific files on different devices (or MBR's on different drives), and offer them in the list. It would make a big difference in usability.