rEFInd is _so_ much simpler: one efi entry, one text config file in the efi partition, nothing that needs to change when the kernel updates, and no massive pile of templating and moving parts to mysteriously break dumping you at an impenetrable grub “rescue” shell.
I'm using rEFInd because it can load and use the NVMe EFI driver unlike GRUB and systemd-boot. rEFInd is a true UEFI boot loader.
I think that Fedora doesn't know to update its configuration when I install or remove a kernel, so I use rEFInd only to run systemd-boot which is pretty well supported by Fedora. I could probably try letting rEFInd scan the boot partition for kernels or modify/tune kernel-install [1], but why fix something that's not broken?
As a side note, I don't like how by default rEFInd does some things automatically and how it makes the boot menu kind of bloated. I had to do configure it a bit, but at least it lets you include separate configuration files that override the defaults or add menu entries. This is why I don't consider it quite simple; I prefer the more minimalist approach of systemd-boot.
does refind support secure boot and measured boot? I loathe pretty much anything systemd but systemd-boot gives me this with zero effort, and it's legitimately useful
That's what I'm currently using in gentoo and it's fine. Realistically there's only 1 config file to modify if I want to change kernel settings and otherwise it just works.
That said, I'm probably going to try a straight EFI boot on my next laptop.
I run a bunch of decade-old HP Microservers. All BIOS-only.
My personal laptops are old Thinkpads, from before the keyboards went crappy & Lenovo took away the expansion options. So they're all about 15, ?20 generation at the newest, but they are all maxed-out and go like stink. BIOS boot mode optional.
My default hypervisor is VirtualBox, because it runs the same on Linux, Windows and Mac. Defaults to BIOS boot.
This is not like some ancient history. All run current OSes and distros.
Thinkpads were all UEFI since T410 (and related other models), not to mention a lot of non-thinkpad machines since ~2005 were UEFI Type 1 (i.e. "always boot to BIOS emulation mode, but everything underneath is UEFI").
Type2 loader entries are just UKIs[1]. I don't know what you are implying with "systemd-boot's automatic sourcing of UKIs isn't a BLS thing"? Any way I try to interpret it, neither would the Type1 entries fall under the definition of automatic sourcing (neither anything any other bootloader does).
rEFInd is _so_ much simpler: one efi entry, one text config file in the efi partition, nothing that needs to change when the kernel updates, and no massive pile of templating and moving parts to mysteriously break dumping you at an impenetrable grub “rescue” shell.