Simon, I could not figure out what's the point you are talking about
unfortunately; especially how 1st/2nd stage bootblock relates with 'the
new way'.  Is it better to bring this story in reverse, isn't it? 

	- the decision we vote
	- why does it matter
	- rationals for vote 'for' or 'against'
	- impacts
	- possible background stories

> Over the last month or so I've been working at making new bootblocks for
> the pmax based somewhat on the alpha bootblocks.
> ...
> It is pretty easy to keep both ways (disklabel and installboot), but
> I'm leaning towards just having one way (installboot) that works for
> all supported filesystem types.
>
> Comments from anyone?