Phillip Tennen, developer of the open-source axleOS, has recently decided to use what he learned from that project to create an IRC client that runs entirely within the UEFI pre-boot environment, with no operating system required. This “UEFIRC” is nearly fully functional, with a graphical interface and a TrueType font renderer, and it’s all written in the Rust programming language.

For those unfamiliar, “UEFI” is just the modern term for “BIOS” since UEFIs replaced those long ago. You’ll often see both referred to as BIOS for simplicity’s sake. They both serve the same purpose as the first piece of software any PC runs before it can boot into an Operating System, where virtually all your work will be done. All the extra features the UEFI interface offers, including complete mouse control and network access, lend themselves to ease of use and even high-end (if questionable) applications like these.

However, according to Tennen’s write-up, UEFIRC is entirely unnecessary. It’s even an elaborate joke! Maybe it was meant for April Fool’s, though that might have led people to believe it wasn’t real, so it may be for the best that he waited.

A note says, “I told a friend I was making a joke project, then explained it. She said she wasn’t sure when to laugh. I’m not sure either.” While UEFIRC isn’t recommended for mainstream use (and is referred to as not “that usable”), it does function well enough for test footage to exist. The header is Phillip entering an IRC room for UEFI development to announce his discovery (to the immediate confusion of the first replier), and below is video test footage with some basic IRC commands.

More exhaustive documentation of achieving this is available at the source for those who want to learn the intricacies of forcing the scrolling text to function inside a UEFI. There are also some other unexpected UEFI applications out there in the wild, like Mitnal, a UEFI Twitter client.