The Free Software Foundation Campaigning to Stop UEFI SecureBoot
 

Read the article:
http://paritynews.com/software/item/...efi-secureboot
Sign here if you agree:
http://www.fsf.org/campaigns/secure-...boot/statement

Signed it a while ago.

The problem isn't with secure boot per se, but in how it may be implemented.

I signed up as well. Of course, I probably will never have an issue with secure boot because I don't use windows and I build my own PC.

Personally, I think that we'll find the UEFI protocol to be flawed anyhow. In the world of classified information (so I am told ...) such requirements are handled by, among other things, the use of encrypted disk drives. And of course, ROMs cannot simply be "flashed" as they can be in consumer computers today.

UEFI is the first-generation attempt to restrict the operating-system images that a particular computer will consent to boot from, but it's still basically voluntary. In other words, the ROM executes an algorithm, then based on that result it decides whether it should or should not choose to do what, in either case, it is capable of doing.

It could be a defense of-sorts against "rootkitting," but once again I doubt that the actual scope of the "thing to be protected" is wide enough. An operating system consists of hundreds of components, and the protected entity is, again AFAIK, only the first-stage boot. To really and securely protect the thing, we would either have to have a way to individually protect the thousands of individual files, or we would resort to the use of hardware-encrypted volumes (and multiple volumes, the "system residence" volume being hardware read-only). Maybe when we've switched the world to solid-state instead of rotating metal discs we'll see that done.

... and all of that is assuming that the Android tablet and iPad tablet are not simply taking over the world so as to render everything that we now know "market obsolete." Which could well happen and be happening.

On ARM it is NOT voluntary, you cannot opt out there. M$'s plan was to have it mandatory on all platforms, but Intel and AMD opposed it, and so M$'s evil plan was delayed.

There are so many evil plans afoot that I cannot say them all, I don't have the motivation nor the audience to understand them. All I can say is it all fits together, the plan is elaborate and it is of the greatest evil.

Things that will happen some time in the future:
Everything will move to mobile terminals to the cloud (smartphones and tablets), and they can cut you off at any time.
All of these terminals will be locked down using Secure Boot (ARM already is).
All real computers will disappear, break (on their own or using new technology), or maybe even be confiscated because they are threats to cyber-security = cyber-terrorism / cyber-crime. Surely they will require an internet ID and you will need Secure Boot to not be considered a cyber-terrorist.
And it all fits in with the rest of the plans, they will also use arguments like PCs not being eco-friendly = using too much power.

Overall, it's all about power ... you losing it, and them gaining it. That sums it up. Yes, I'm sure you're sick of my paranoid musings, but don't worry I will stop posting them soon.

Everything will move to smartphones and tablets? Ever tried running a spreadsheet on a smartphone, or writing a report on a tablet?

And who are these people with evil plans? And where are they? Remember there are plenty of others with a beady eye on them! The EU has come down hard on Microsoft several times, and are "keeping an eye", they say, on whether the ARM situation is acceptable. Countries like Russia and Brazil are moving to Linux on state and educational computers. Microsoft & co may be able to buy politicians in countries like the US (scuppering the Justice Department's plan to break them up), Serbia, and Pakistan, but some of us are more resistant.

It's true, it will be difficult to get anything done on these dinky little smartphones and tablets, but I'm sure they'll find a way to do it. I see people can text almost as fast as I can type, so I don't think there will be too much of an issue.

They are the eye, lidless, wreathed in flame. They are where no other eye can see them.

Usually, the way that people get "blind-sided" by a technological change is that they are unable to visualize how a business objective could possibly be met, other than by employing the then-existing "only" way to do it. And, since the then-existing way "has 'obvious' advantages," "these aren't the 'droids you're looking for ... move along ..."

Famously, there was a time when Wang Corporation had "an 80% market share" for dedicated word-processing computers. Almost every law-office in the world had one of these machines installed, and Wang (of course) rented them. They were helplessly blind-sided by ... the IBM PC and WordStar.

Perhaps, tablet users will find a way not to have to write those reports. If the instantly real-time interactivity that we see, for example, in Facebook ("let me take a picture of and post a picture of what we're going to eat for dinner ...") could extend to ordinary business day-to-day, thanks to the tablet, then maybe we don't really need those spreadsheets after all?

Who knows. But, worth thinking about.

Signed!

Signed, and made a financial donation too...

H_TeXMeX_H, we'll never get tired of your paranoid musings, even though you're probably a Microsoft employee determined to make conspiracy theories seem implausible by the "boy who cries wolf" mechanism. ;)

Look, if I cry wolf and the wolf is upon us, it's too late.

Looks like Ubuntu is on the right track.

--EDIT-- Might help to provide a link...
UEFI Secure Boot and Ubuntu

I figured out how to get slackware 14 x64 installed/bootable from a EFI bootable USB drive, too. That's with secure boot disabled, though.

I was scared shitless though, when I first powered on my laptop (came with Windoze 8) with a live CD in the drive.. Got a message to the effect of, "Unauthorized operating system detected!"

I thought, "OMG THEY BANNED LINUX!", but no.. not quite. Not yet... For now you can disable it without massive hax.


Signed, donated.

Their solution, at its core requires a base certificate signature by Microsoft. Having Linux, and every other operating system, effectively hostage to Microsoft is not what I'd call "being on the right track".

I agree. Ubuntu has already strayed so far from the the right track that I do NOT consider it a Linux distro. It is a Window$ variant.

Jeez, it's like getting a permission slip from your mother i.e MS.

This goes to show you how MS is taking control of your hardware and restricting your freedom and it will probably get worse in future windows releases.

Thank God I stopped using windows a long, long time ago...