On 21 September 2011 14:55, Chris Samuel <chris@csamuel.org> wrote:
This looks like something to keep an eye on.. Matthew Garrett (the guy who makes peoples laptops work with Linux and has to deal with EFI & Linux - makes you wonder what awful thing he did in a past life) writes about a worrying requirement for Windows 8 logo certification for hardware vendors..
http://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/5552.html
# Microsoft requires that machines conforming to the # Windows 8 logo program and running a client version # of Windows 8 ship with secure boot enabled. The two # alternatives here are for Windows to be signed with # a Microsoft key and for the public part of that key # to be included with all systems, or alternatively for # each OEM to include their own key and sign the # pre-installed versions of Windows. The second approach # would make it impossible to run boxed copies of Windows # on Windows logo hardware, and also impossible to install # new versions of Windows unless your OEM provided a new # signed copy. The former seems more likely. # # A system that ships with only OEM and Microsoft keys will # not boot a generic copy of Linux.
Ahhh Trusted (read Treacherous) Computing. I thought that idea was buried years ago. I guess the question will be, will the purchaser of the hardware be able to install a non-Microsoft OS? If not, I'm not sure who the hardware owner is under this model. Will we be reduced to mod-chipping "our" PCs in another five years. On another note, what have the white boxes or build it yourself? Regards George