Microsoft's new secure boot strategy will suit Linux firms

onebuck · 05-11-2015, 12:46 PM

Hi,

Microsoft's new secure boot strategy will suit Linux firms;

Quote:

Linux companies Red Hat, SUSE and Canonical will benefit from the decision by Microsoft to suggest that OEMs not provide a means of turning off secure boot on PCs running Windows 10.

Microsoft made its intentions known during its WinHEC conference in Shenzhen, China, in March, when it announced that in the case of hardware that was installed with Windows 10, it would be leaving the choice of having a means to turn off secure boot up to the vendor.

Personally, I cannot see vendors excluding buyers. Wait & see!
Hope this helps.
Have fun & enjoy!

ReaperX7 · 05-11-2015, 05:03 PM

Say goodbye to open source when that happens...

Quote:

Linux companies Red Hat, SUSE and Canonical will benefit

Why am I not surprised at this intentional power grab?

Yes, vendors will have the option, but when they alienate consumers, they'll be screwed themselves.

dugan · 05-11-2015, 05:33 PM

Quote:

Linux companies Red Hat, SUSE and Canonical will benefit from the decision by Microsoft to suggest that OEMs not provide a means of turning off secure boot on PCs running Windows 10.

Uhm, there was no such decision as far as we know. "We" includes the author of the article.

Quote:

when it announced that in the case of hardware that was installed with Windows 10, it would be leaving the choice of having a means to turn off secure boot up to the vendor.

That's what actually was announced. Quite different from the previous sentence, n'est pas?

From the article:

Quote:

Microsoft was as evasive as it is usually. Initially, it was "I've passed this onto the Microsoft team who will be in touch."

I assume that was an editorial error?

I hesitate to say "stop pretending that ITWire exists", but that's a good rule the vast majority of the times. Such as this time.

onebuck · 05-11-2015, 05:41 PM

Hi,

Quote:

Originally Posted by ReaperX7

Say goodbye to open source when that happens...

Why am I not surprised at this intentional power grab?

Yes, vendors will have the option, but when they alienate consumers, they'll be screwed themselves.

I do not believe open source will disappear. Where there is will there will be a way. If Microsoft dictates to the vendor then you will see anti-trust issue(s) here and abroad. Just look at IBM and AT&T for the problems created by their companies. Microsoft has already been taken to task by the European legal communities. I would expect the legalities of this will be challenged here and abroad if Microsoft tries to dictate the closing of the hardware to benefit their interests.

syg00 · 05-11-2015, 05:53 PM

When Win8 first came out there was this same ambiguity re secure-boot. And M$oft wouldn't clear it up. I went in to a shop and asked to get into the "BIOS" to check if I could turn it off before buying. Nope.
So I bought two Win7 versions of essentially the same hardware they were "fire-saling" for half price. Still got them - never went to Win8 at all. Will update them to Win10 one day and bypass all the angst.

fatmac · 05-12-2015, 09:38 AM

If a manufacturer doesn't offer choice it will die, they know lots of people use other O/S such as Linux & BSD.

I, for one, do not buy a new machine with an installed O/S, as I intend to use F.O.S.S. always.

onebuck · 05-12-2015, 10:22 AM

Hi,

Quote:

Originally Posted by syg00

When Win8 first came out there was this same ambiguity re secure-boot. And M$oft wouldn't clear it up. I went in to a shop and asked to get into the "BIOS" to check if I could turn it off before buying. Nope.
So I bought two Win7 versions of essentially the same hardware they were "fire-saling" for half price. Still got them - never went to Win8 at all. Will update them to Win10 one day and bypass all the angst.

That would be a rare machine since disabling 'secure boot' is required to update Win8/8.1
Do you remember the manufacture of that machine?

EDIT: you would still need to install a win8/8.1 to upgrade to 10 or would you be doing a licensed win 10 install.

syg00 · 05-12-2015, 07:14 PM

ASUS probably, as the Win7 ones are.
M$oft announced they expect to upgrade all Win[78] users for free - if you do it within 12 months of announcement. There are likely to be continuing support kickers in that though - wait for the news in about a year ...

onebuck · 05-12-2015, 09:12 PM

Hi,

Be sure to keep a tag on that since you may want to upgrade and if you miss the target date then MS will just say "Sorry".

Arcosanti · 05-13-2015, 07:52 PM

This is the tightening of the UEFI secure boot noose. My understanding is that Win 10 is supposed to be the last release of Windows. If Microsoft intends on excluding other OS'es then they will see to it this time around. Hopefully someone will make patched UEFI images that will allow Other OS'es to boot. Kind of like what happened when some of the older IBM Thinkpad laptop BIOS'es got patched to disable IBM's wifi card white list.