Petitboot vs rEFInd

Petitboot is a free, GPL-2.0-licensed bootloader implemented by userspace programs in a small Linux image. It discovers devices and bootable images, reads configurations such as GRUB, SYSLINUX, and Yaboot, then starts systems through Linux kexec. Its primary interface is an ncurses menu for viewing boot choices and system information, changing settings, running plugins, and opening a shell. Operating-system images can be loaded over HTTP, HTTPS, NFS, SFTP, or TFTP. Basic functionality is available on platforms that support kexec, while documented platform implementations include POWER systems using OPAL firmware and ARM64 systems with efivarfs support. On supported systems, inband IPMI can report BMC information and alter boot behavior through boot-device overrides. Plugins package and run binaries and may be discovered locally or in PXE network files. The pb-discover server finds and configures devices, while user interfaces communicate through pb-protocol. The included pb-sos utility gathers diagnostic and crash information.

rEFInd is a free boot manager, forked from rEFIt, that scans for boot loaders and lets users select an operating system or utility at startup. It is intended for EFI-based computers, not older BIOS-based machines, and works with EFI 1.1 and UEFI 2.x. It can find EFI loaders, BIOS/CSM/legacy loaders, and boot options saved in firmware NVRAM. For Linux, rEFInd can detect kernels with EFI stub support, locate initrd files, and read kernel options from a refind_linux.conf file. It supports text and graphical operation, with configurable resolution, backgrounds, icons, and fonts. It can communicate with Shim to authenticate boot loaders using valid UEFI Secure Boot keys, Shim keys, or Machine Owner Keys. Included filesystem drivers cover ext2/3, ext4, Btrfs, ReiserFS, HFS+, and ISO-9660; the NTFS driver is not compiled by default. Downloads include ZIP, RPM, Debian, CD-R image, and USB flash drive image packages. Installation scripts and manual procedures cover Linux, macOS, and Windows. The maker describes it as beta-quality, with uneven testing across architectures.