Clover Bootloader vs systemd-boot

Clover Bootloader starts macOS, Windows and Linux systems on Macs and PCs with UEFI or BIOS firmware. It can launch through UEFI directly or use CloverEFI to emulate UEFI, and supports UEFI and legacy boot modes. Its graphical interface can be customized with themes, icons, fonts, backgrounds, animations and mouse pointers. Users can create boot entries for other operating systems, while the interface can save preboot logs, screenshots and OEM ACPI tables for diagnostics. Settings are held in an XML config.plist file in EFI/CLOVER. When firmware Secure Boot is enabled, Clover’s Secure setting limits booting to signed binaries. The repository links to a separate theme manager and theme collection, and its README points users to AppleLife, InsanelyMac and macos86.it forums. Build procedures are provided for macOS and Ubuntu 19.10. Clover incorporates OpenCorePkg libraries for kext injection and patching. It is free under the BSD 2-Clause License, which permits source and binary redistribution. The releases page lists version 5175 as latest, with six assets.

systemd-boot is a UEFI boot manager that runs configured EFI images. Its menu displays configured entries, and a default can be selected through a pattern or the on-screen menu. If no timeout is set and no key is pressed, it starts the default entry immediately. Configuration files, kernels, initrds, and other EFI images must be on the EFI System Partition. Linux kernels need CONFIG_EFI_STUB to run directly as EFI images. Entry files can specify a title, version, machine ID, EFI image, kernel options, Linux kernel, and initrd. Hotkeys can select Linux, Windows, macOS, the EFI Shell, or entries numbered 1 through 9. EFI variables store settings such as the default, preferred, one-shot entry, and menu timeout. The systemd project says bootctl can install systemd-boot to the EFI System Partition. The project is free and open source, with GPL-2.0 and LGPL-2.1 licenses listed in its public repository. Its stated firmware support is UEFI, not BIOS, and it supports multiboot.