I'm a high school teacher and I recently was discussing this. Protip: don't talk to 14 year olds about how if something is in between hard and soft, it's firm. 🙄

Firmware is just software that runs in a different place.

Source: me, I write firmware sometimes at work.

Mind? Blown.

Wow. TIL.

Wait... It's not "firm" as in "company that made the stuff"? FIRMware = the official software a firm pushes to patch things they make

By the way, "joystick" was kinda rude back in the day, but nobody even notices now.

Damn… I always thought it meant the “firm” putting their “ware” on the chips. 😂

TIL! I have never even wondered why it is called that. Just took it as a fact and went along with it.

Anyone remember shareware?

Then there's wetware (people).

I miss some of the older ones from my college days (1990s).. million logical instructions per second (megalips), and measuring mouse speed in mickeys/pixel.

Extra firmware cannot be modified.

Firm firmware might be able to be modified, but documentation is largely unknown.

Silken firmware is easily modified by the user.

These names are taken from tofu packaging.

My non-tech wife tried to tell me “obviously that’s why it’s called that” when I’ve been writing software (and even some minor firmware hacking) for 30 years.

Is this the real life?

Can someone ELI5 what firmware actually is though? I kind of knew it was half way between, but i don’t know what that looks like.

oh my god you blew my mind and I also work in IT

Started computer science in grade school with only an hour of actual computer time a week. A LOT of theory and history. Charles Babbage, Ada, ENIAC, etc.

This stuff was drilled into our heads. Same with bit, byte and, halfway between bit and byte, a nibble. It's a thing. 4 bits is a nibble.

Funny enough, I couldn't code to save my life now.

Wow. I've never connected that dot either. Cool!

I think most people get it intuitively without thinking too much about it.

It's software that is tied to the hardware, in the old days most commonly on ROM, which makes it "firm".

Also as many mention, it's tied to the hardware by the "firm" that made the hardware, although I think that is more accidental, it kind of works for the logic too IMO.

It's such a brilliant term that most people generally have an intuitive idea about what it means, without an actual explanation. Today though it's a bit more murky where the line is drawn between software and firmware, since much firmware is distributed through the OS and Drivers, and can be changed on the fly.

Rule of thumb: Firmware is essentially software that can break the hardware if something goes wrong.

I thought this was common knowledge. I distinctly remember this being taught in a basic high school computing class back in the 90’s.

Like Tofu. Mind blown

Holy shit! 😱

Firmware is the Hardware of Software

Chubware.

How come I never noticed that? That’s brilliant :)

The entire foundation of my life is built on quicksand.