MOAR CORES

    Why do even the newest Intel CPUs *still* boot in 16-bit real mode? Why aren't we booting in, at the very least, 32-bit protected, if not 64-bit long protected mode? The way it is now makes it incredibly hard to write operating systems for x86, because you have to do shit like enabling the fucking A20 line, setting up descriptor tables and switching modes. It's 2011, folks, we shouldn't have to do this kludgy shit anymore.

Why aren't we booting in, at the very least, 32-bit protected, if not 64-bit long protected mode?
Because protected mode needs to be fucking set up, retard. It doesn't "Just Work" because you need to create the IDT, GDT, pagetable, etc. first. Real mode does, because there's nothing to set up for it.

>>13
This too.