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The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of available bootloaders.
Name | Developer / Publisher | Current version | Initial release date | Latest release date | License | Cost | Website / documentation |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Acronis OS Selector | Acronis International GmbH | ? | ? | ? | Proprietary | $49.95 (personal use) $79.99 (commercial, per seat) $299.99 (server) | Official website |
Barebox | Sascha Hauer the barebox community | ? | ? | ? | GPL-2.0-only | No cost | Official website |
BootManager | ? | ? | ? | ? | MIT | No cost | ? |
BootX (Apple) | Apple Inc. | ? | ? | ? | Proprietary | bundled with macOS | ? |
BootX (Linux) | Benjamin Herrenschmidt | ? | ? | ? | Proprietary | No cost | ? |
Clover (fork of rEFIt) | https://github.com/CloverHackyColor/CloverBootloader/graphs/contributors Multi Contributors] | 5157 | October 3, 2013 | 29 June 2024 | GPLv2/BSD-2-Clause | No cost | Official website |
Das U-Boot | DENX Software Engineering | 2025.07 ![]() | 7 July 2025 ![]() | GPL-2.0-or-later | No cost | Official website | |
GRUB Legacy | GNU Project | 8 May 2005 | GPL-2.0-or-later | No cost | |||
GNU GRUB | GNU Project | 2.12 [1] ![]() | 1995 | 20 December 2023 | GPL-3.0-or-later | No cost | Official website |
Grub2Win | Drummerdp | 2.4.2.4 | 2010 | April 2, 2025 | GPLv3 | No cost | Official website |
GRUB4DOS | 31 March 2009 | GPL-2.0-only [a] | Official website | ||||
iBoot | Apple Inc. | iBoot-11881.62.2~1 | June 29, 2007 | December 9, 2024 | Proprietary | ||
LILO | BSD-3-Clause | ||||||
Limine | mintsuki | 9.5.0 [3] ![]() | April 6, 2020 | 14 July 2025 | BSD-2-Clause | No cost | Official website |
loadlin | GPL-2.0-or-later | ||||||
NTLDR | Microsoft | July 27, 1993 (Windows NT 3.1) | Proprietary | bundled with Windows | |||
RedBoot | GPL-2.0-or-later (eCos license) | ||||||
rEFInd (fork of rEFIt) | Roderick W. Smith | 0.14.4.2 | March 14, 2012 | 6 April 2024 | GPL-3.0-or-later/BSD-3-Clause | No cost | Official website |
rEFIt | Christoph Pfisterer | 0.14 | March 2, 2006 | 7 March 2010 | GPL-2.0-or-later/BSD-3-Clause | No cost | Official website |
SYSLINUX | 6 October 2014 | GPL-2.0-or-later | |||||
systemd-boot / Gummiboot | LGPL-2.1-or-later | ||||||
TianoCore EDK II | BSD-2-Clause | ||||||
Windows Boot Manager | Microsoft | January 30, 2007 (Windows Vista) | Proprietary | bundled with Windows | |||
XOSL | 20 August 2002 | GPL-2.0-only | |||||
Name | Developer / Publisher | Current version | Initial release date | Latest release date | License | Cost | Website / documentation |
Note: The column MBR (Master Boot Record) refers to whether or not the boot loader can be stored in the first sector of a mass storage device. The column VBR (Volume Boot Record) refers to the ability of the boot loader to be stored in the first sector of any partition on a mass storage device.
Name | Can reside in | Can boot from | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ESP (UEFI) | MBR | VBR | Floppy | Hard disk | Second Hard disk | Logical partitions | CD-ROM | Floppy | USB | Zip | LAN | |
Acronis OS Selector | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? |
Barebox | Yes | Yes | No | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
BootKey | ? | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
BootManager | ? | Yes | No | No | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | No |
BootX (Apple) | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
BootX (Linux) | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Das U-Boot | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
GRUB Legacy | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
GNU GRUB | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
GRUB4DOS | ? | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
iBoot | Yes | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | No | ? | ? | ? | ? |
LILO | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? |
Limine | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
loadlin | ? | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
NTLDR | ? | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | No | No | Yes | Yes | ? | ? |
RedBoot | ? | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
rEFInd | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | Yes |
rEFIt (not maintained) | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | ? | No | ? | Yes | ? | No |
SPFdisk | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
SYSLINUX | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
systemd-boot / Gummiboot | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? |
Windows Boot Manager | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? |
XOSL | ? | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | No | ? | No |
Name | Can reside in | Can boot from | ||||||||||
ESP (UEFI) | MBR | VBR | Floppy | Hard disk | Second Hard disk | Logical partitions | CD-ROM | Floppy | USB | Zip | LAN | |
Name | Can boot | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
MS-DOS | Windows 9x/Me | Windows NT series before Vista | Windows Vista/7/8/10 | Linux | ReactOS | MenuetOS | *BSD | Mac OS X | |
Acronis OS Selector | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes |
Barebox | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
BootKey | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
BootManager | Yes | Yes | Calls NTLDR | Calls Windows Boot Manager | Calls GRUB or LILO | ? | ? | ? | ? |
BootX (Apple) | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes |
BootX (Linux) | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Das U-Boot | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | Yes (FreeBSD) | ? |
GRUB Legacy and GRUB4DOS | Yes | Yes | Calls NTLDR | Calls Windows Boot Manager | Yes | Calls FreeLoader | Yes | Calls bootloader for some kernels | Yes |
GNU GRUB | Yes | Yes | Calls NTLDR | Calls Windows Boot Manager | Yes | Calls FreeLoader | Yes | Yes | Yes |
iBoot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes |
LILO | ? | Yes | Calls NTLDR | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Calls biosboot (FreeBSD, PC-BSD, ...) | ? |
loadlin | with MEMDISK | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | ? | ? |
Limine | Calls bootloader | Calls bootloader | Calls bootloader | Calls bootloader | Yes | Calls bootloader | Calls bootloader | Calls bootloader | Calls bootloader |
NTLDR | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Calls GRUB4DOS | ? | ? | ? | Calls Darwin bootloader [4] |
RedBoot | Yes | Yes | Calls NTLDR | Calls Windows Boot Manager | Yes | Calls FreeLoader | Yes | Yes | Yes |
rEFInd (fork of rEFIt) | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes |
rEFIt (not maintained) | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes |
SPFdisk | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
SYSLINUX | Yes | Yes | Calls NTLDR | Calls Windows Boot Manager | Yes | ? | Yes | via mboot.c32 module | ? |
systemd-boot / Gummiboot | No | No | Windows Server 2013 64bits with UEFI only | Calls Windows Boot Manager [5] | Yes | ? | ? | UEFI only | Yes [5] |
Windows Boot Manager | ? | Yes | Calls NTLDR | Yes | Calls GRUB or LILO | ? | ? | ? | ? |
XOSL | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Name | Can boot | ||||||||
MS-DOS | Windows 9x/Me | Windows NT series before Vista | Windows Vista/7/8/10 | Linux | ReactOS | MenuetOS | *BSD | Mac OS X | |
Name | FAT | Minix | ext2 | HFS | AFFS | F2FS | YAFFS | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
FAT12 | FAT16 | FAT32 | exFAT | YAFFS1 | YAFFS2 | ||||||
Acronis OS Selector | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Barebox | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | No | Yes | No | No | No | ? | ? |
BootX (Apple) | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
BootX (Linux) | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Das U-Boot | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
FreeLoader (ReactOS) | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
GNU GRUB 2 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? |
GRUB Legacy | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | ? | ? |
Grub2Win | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
GRUB4DOS | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | ? | ? |
iBoot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
LILO | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Limine [6] [7] | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
loader (FreeBSD) | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
loadlin | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
NTLDR | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | No | No | No | No | ? | ? |
RedBoot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
rEFInd | Yes [a] | ? | ? | Yes [b] | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ||
rEFIt | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Syslinux | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | ? | ? |
systemd-boot / Gummiboot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Windows Boot Manager | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | No | ? | ? | ? | ? |
XOSL | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
yaboot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Name | NTFS | ext3 | ext4 | ReiserFS | Reiser4 | JFS | XFS | UFS | UDF | HFS+ | BeFS | AFS | SFS | UBIFS | JFFS2 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Acronis OS Selector | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Barebox | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes |
BootManager | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
BootX (Apple) | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
BootX (Linux) | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Das U-Boot | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes |
FreeLoader (ReactOS) | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
GNU GRUB 2 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? |
GRUB Legacy | No | Yes | patch [a] | Yes [b] | No | Yes [b] | Yes [b] | Yes [b] | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Grub2Win | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
GRUB4DOS | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes [b] | No | Yes [b] | Yes [b] | Yes [b] | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
iBoot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
LILO | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Limine | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
loader (FreeBSD) | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
loadlin | Yes [c] | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
NTLDR | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
RedBoot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes |
rEFInd | Partial [d] | Yes [d] | Yes [d] | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes [d] | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
rEFIt | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Syslinux | Yes | Yes | Partial [e] | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
systemd-boot / Gummiboot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Windows Boot Manager | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | ? | No | No | No | No | No | No |
XOSL | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
yaboot | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Name | btrfs | APFS | ZFS | NILFS | ReFS |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Acronis OS Selector | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Barebox | No | No | No | No | ? |
BootManager | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
BootX (Apple) | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
BootX (Linux) | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Das U-Boot | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? |
FreeLoader (ReactOS) | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
GNU GRUB 2 | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | ? |
GRUB Legacy | No | No | No | No | ? |
Grub2Win | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
GRUB4DOS | No | No | No | No | ? |
iBoot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
LILO | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Limine [8] [9] | No | No | No | No | ? |
loader (FreeBSD) | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? |
loadlin | No | No | No | No | ? |
NTLDR | No | No | No | No | ? |
RedBoot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
rEFInd | Yes [a] | ? | ? | ? | ? |
rEFIt | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Syslinux | Yes | No | No | No | ? |
systemd-boot / Gummiboot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Windows Boot Manager | ? | No | ? | ? | ? |
XOSL | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
yaboot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Name | cpio | tar | ISO 9660 | romfs | SquashFS | cramfs |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Acronis OS Selector | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Barebox | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes [a] | Yes |
BootManager | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
BootX (Apple) | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
BootX (Linux) | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Das U-Boot | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes [b] | Yes |
FreeLoader (ReactOS) | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
GNU GRUB 2 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? |
GRUB Legacy | ? | ? | Yes [c] | ? | ? | ? |
Grub2Win | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
GRUB4DOS | ? | ? | Yes [c] | ? | ? | ? |
iBoot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
LILO | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Limine | No | No | Yes | No | No | No |
loader (FreeBSD) | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
loadlin | No | No | Yes [d] | ? | ? | ? |
NTLDR | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
RedBoot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
rEFInd | ? | ? | Yes [e] | ? | ? | ? |
rEFIt | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Syslinux | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
systemd-boot / Gummiboot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Windows Boot Manager | No | No | Yes | No | No | No |
XOSL | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
yaboot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Name | Advanced command | Scriptable | Supported architecture | Supported executable | Supported protocol | Supported decompression | Others |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
GRUB Legacy | Yes | No | x86 (PC) | Multiboot 1, Linux zImage, Linux bzImage and others | TFTP | gzip | |
GRUB 2 | Yes | Yes | x86 (PC, EFI, UEFI, coreboot, OLPC), IA-64, ARM (U-Boot, UEFI), PowerPC (OpenFirmware), MIPS, SPARC (OpenFirmware) | Multiboot and others [10] | TFTP, HTTP [11] | gzip, xz [12] | |
LILO | No | No | x86 (PC) | Linux zImage, Linux bzImage | ? | bzip2, gzip | |
loader (FreeBSD) | Yes | Yes | x86 (PC, EFI, UEFI, coreboot, OLPC), ARM (U-Boot, UEFI), MIPS, PowerPC (OpenFirmware), SPARC v9 (OpenFirmware) | FreeBSD ELF kernel image, Multiboot (incomplete, for Xen image only) [13] | TFTP, NFS | gzip, bzip2 | |
loadlin | No | No | x86 (PC) | Linux zImage, Linux bzImage | ? | gzip | |
SYSLINUX | via cmd.c32 module | via lua.c32 module | x86 (PC) | Linux zImage, Linux bzImage, [14] Multiboot, [15] MBR image [16] | TFTP | gzip, bzip2, lzo, zip, lzma, ? | |
Yaboot | No | No | PowerPC (Open Firmware) | Linux ELF image | TFTP | No | |
RedBoot | Yes | yes (boot only) | ARM, ColdFire, H8300, x86, Freescale/Motorola 68000, MIPS, PowerPC, SH, SPARC, SPARCLite | ELF | TFTP, serial (X-modem) | gzip | |
Das U-Boot | Yes | Yes | PowerPC, ARM, AVR32, Blackfin, ColdFire, IXP, Leon2, m68k, MicroBlaze, MIPS, NIOS, NIOS2, PXA, x86, RISC-V, StrongARM, SH2, SH3, SH4, ... | EFI, ELF, U-Boot image format, Linux zImage, raw | TFTP, NFS, serial (S-Record, Y-Modem, Kermit binary protocol) | bzip2, gzip, lzma | |
Barebox | Yes | Yes | ARM, Blackfin, NIOS2, MIPS, x86, PowerPC | ELF, U-Boot image format | TFTP, NFS, serial (S-Record, Y-Modem, Kermit binary protocol) | bzip2, gzip, lz4, xz, lzo | |
NTLDR | No | No | x86 (PC) | Windows NT kernel image (PE), MBR image | ? | ? | default bootloader on Windows NT |
Windows Boot Manager | No | No | x86 (PC), ARM (only on Windows Mobile remake) | Portable Executable | ? | ? | Successor of NTLDR; used on Vista and up. |
FreeLoader (ReactOS) | No | No | x86 (PC), ARM, PowerPC | ? | ? | ? | clone of NTLDR |
Limine | Yes | No | x86 (PC, UEFI), ARM, RISC-V, LoongArch [17] [18] | Multiboot 1 and 2, Limine boot protocol, Linux zImage and bzImage [19] | TFTP | gzip | |
Name | Advanced command | Scriptable | Supported architecture | Supported executable | Supported protocol | Supported decompression | Others |
Since we have copied the Linux kernel code and the Linux kernel follows GPL2, so only GPL2 is adoptable and it rules here.
If you enabled the network support, the special drives (protocol[,server]) are also available. Supported protocols are 'http' and 'tftp'.
Since 10.3-RELEASE, the BTX loader included in distribution supports Multiboot, but only for Xen (the Xen image is a Multiboot-compliant kernel). ... Because this multiboot support in BTX loader is designed for Xen only, it requires the first Multiboot module be original kFreeBSD image. Trying to load a Multiboot kernel without loading any Multiboot modules would resulted in BTX loader complaining 'No FreeBSD kernel provided, aborting'.