Gummiboot (software)
gummiboot is an open-source boot manager. Its final independent release is version 48. It has since been merged into systemd as its systemd-boot component and maintained as such.
Designed for systems using the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface and developed by the Red Hat employees Kay Sievers and Harald Hoyer, gummiboot is intended to be a minimal alternative to GNU GRUB that "just works": it automatically detects bootable images, does not require a configuration file, provides a basic menu-based interface, and can also integrate with systemd to provide performance data.
As a word play, the name "gummiboot" means "inflatable boat" in German, the native language of its initial developers. Despite being developed by two of its employees, Red Hat's Fedora Project does not use gummiboot for booting UEFI systems; instead, it will use efilinux to chainload GRUB.
gummiboot is licensed under version 2.1 of the GNU Lesser General Public License, unlike GRUB which is licensed under the GNU General Public License version 3. This distinction is intended to allow gummiboot to be suitable for use on UEFI systems implementing "secure boot", due to concerns surrounding its requirement to distribute all authorization keys needed to run GPL-v3-licensed software if hardware restrictions such as secure boot are in effect.
