Wikidata:Property proposal/firmware
firmware
[edit]Originally proposed at Wikidata:Property proposal/Computing
| Description | firmware installed on this hardware |
|---|---|
| Represents | firmware (Q104851) |
| Data type | Item |
| Domain | electronic device (Q2858615) |
| Example 1 | System76 Darter Pro 9 (Q135651768)→System76 Open Firmware (Q136297555) |
| Example 2 | Keychron K8 Pro (Q136153103)→QMK (Q117230916) |
| Example 3 | Gigabyte X58A UD3R (Q65961856)→Award BIOS (Q136297773) |
| Subproperty of | operating system (P306) |
Motivation
[edit]When talking about hardware components, it's often useful to know what firmware is running on them or is capable of running on them. We do have operating system (P306), but that property is too broad and becomes ambiguous when dealing with hardware components. If I tag a disk drive or an input device or an expansion card with operating system (P306)ExampleOS, am I saying that the device runs ExampleOS, or that it's compatible with computers that run ExampleOS? The only way you can know is by digging into the properties of ExampleOS to try to determine whether it's a high-level OS or low-level firmware.
The other way I see to resolve this ambiguity would be to split P306 into two properties ('compatible with OS' and 'runs OS'), move all existing statements to one of those two properties, and then delete P306. But that seems like far more trouble than its worth.
The other thing that's nice about a separate property is that it makes it easier to deal with items that have both a firmware and an operating system, such as instances of computer model (Q55990535). –IagoQnsi (talk) 21:07, 15 September 2025 (UTC)
Discussion
[edit]
Support Matthias M. (talk) 18:28, 16 September 2025 (UTC)
Comment I think there probably are just very items about firmware so at this point it would probably way too partial. First it would need a bulk import of data on firmware. --Prototyperspective (talk) 17:02, 24 September 2025 (UTC)
- We currently have 81 instances of either firmware (Q104851) or embedded operating system (Q1139923), and I'd bet a few more that aren't properly tagged. And some of these are used on TONS of devices; there are probably hundreds/thousands of distinct computer motherboards that shipped with either Award BIOS, Phoenix BIOS, or AMIBIOS. There are some sites that have cataloged this information such as TheRetroWeb, but it's also sometimes available from the individual manufacturers, which would require smaller imports (for example, the first two examples are available via System76's tech-docs on GitHub and the products.json Shopify API on keychron.com). –IagoQnsi (talk) 20:07, 24 September 2025 (UTC)
- That's not even close to 1% I'd estimate. Then where would the data be retrieved from? What would the use be if this is set on far fewer than 0.1% of hardware items? Prototyperspective (talk) 17:58, 2 October 2025 (UTC)
- We currently have 81 instances of either firmware (Q104851) or embedded operating system (Q1139923), and I'd bet a few more that aren't properly tagged. And some of these are used on TONS of devices; there are probably hundreds/thousands of distinct computer motherboards that shipped with either Award BIOS, Phoenix BIOS, or AMIBIOS. There are some sites that have cataloged this information such as TheRetroWeb, but it's also sometimes available from the individual manufacturers, which would require smaller imports (for example, the first two examples are available via System76's tech-docs on GitHub and the products.json Shopify API on keychron.com). –IagoQnsi (talk) 20:07, 24 September 2025 (UTC)
- Comment I really wish you would go ahead with the 'compatible with OS' and 'runs OS' property idea. We can always just mark operating system (P306) as being deprecated and ask people not to use it like we currently do with P642 (P642) @IagoQnsi:--Trade (talk) 01:31, 25 September 2025 (UTC)
- I believe the best course of action is to keep the current P306 for 'compatible with OS' (its primary use anyway) and create a new property for 'runs OS', then gradually migrate appropriate items to the new property. Otherwise, deprecating and deleting the old property may never happen or could take many years. Anticeri (talk) 18:24, 5 November 2025 (UTC)
- Support. This identifier can be useful. It would've been useful also for me in some situations. --V. eagle talk 13:08, 16 October 2025 (UTC)
- @IagoQnsi, Matthias M., Prototyperspective, Trade, Vellion Eagle:
Done ArthurPSmith (talk) 21:00, 24 October 2025 (UTC)