Linux Australia may have a case on Win 8: ACCC

[Golden]

Linux Australia members who complained to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) about Microsoft's plans to mandate the enabling of a secure booting feature on Windows 8 machines have been told by the competition regulator that they may in fact have a case.

Linux Aus may have a case on Win 8: ACCC - Business - News - ZDNet Australia

 

[seekermeister]

Another reason, on a growing list, to avoid Windows 8.

 

[SIW2]

That story has been around a few months - not sure where it is up to now.

 

[JerometheGiraff]

Windows 8.
3,2,1......FAIL

 

[FuturDreamz]

I thought the intention of secure boot was to be optional, or at least can be disabled though BIOS by someone who knew what he was doing?

 

[Katanyavich]

I won't buy a machine with secure-boot unless it CAN be or IS disabled.

And that's non-negotiable.

 

[logicearth]

Windows 8 will have no control over weather SecureBoot can be turned off or on. That is completely up to the OEM hardware manufacture. SecureBoot is part of the motherboard not the OS. I find this whole thing stupid. No one is filling law suites against Apple for not being able to install Linux on the iPad. If an OEM wants to lock down their tablets/computers to one OS, they bloody well can. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BUY THEIR COMPUTERS.

But no people have to blow the whole thing out of proportion who don't understand a thing about it.

 

[seekermeister]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but as I read the article, this only effects machines run on with UEFI:

The Linux Australia community began petitioning the ACCC this week after Microsoft aired plans to mandate the enabling of Unified Extensible Firmware Interface's (UEFI) secure boot feature for devices bearing the "Designed for Windows 8" logo. This means that any software or hardware that is to run on the firmware will need to be signed by Microsoft or the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) to be able to execute. This would make it impossible to install alternative operating systems like Linux, or even older versions of Windows, if OEMs didn't bundle the secure keys with new operating system releases, allow users a facility to update the secure key list or allow the secure boot feature to be disabled in the firmware options.

As I understand it, UEFI is totally controlled by the OS, not by the motherboard's BIOS. I have no idea of how this would be applied to machines that run on a hardware BIOS, but it kind of sounds as though Windows 8 wouldn't. If that is true, then Windows 8 would obsolete all non-UEFI machines. If I'm wrong, please enlighten me.

EDIT: If computers are designed to run on UEFI, then they wouldn't need a hardware BIOS at all...would they? If there was no hardware BIOS, then one couldn't do anything that Windows wouldn't allow...even installing Linux on a discreet hard drive, because there wouldn't be any BIOS Boot Menu.

 

[logicearth]

Seekermeister, UEFI is not controlled by the OS, UEFI is the replacement for BIOS. UEFI/BIOS is the interface an OS uses to communicate with the hardware. UEFI does the same thing as the BIOS does but is a newer standard for modern computers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extensible_Firmware_Interface

 

[seekermeister]

Okay, I guess that I misunderstood, because it says that UEFI is software, rather than firmware, and I figured that meant that it must be part of the OS. Still, the following throws me some:

UEFI is not restricted to any specific processor architecture and can run on top of, or instead of, older BIOS implementations

Since it can replace the BIOS, as well as run on top of it, it would appear that replacement would be necessary for MS's mandate to become effective.

 

[logicearth]

"run on top of" is for compatibility. Need special boot loaders for EFI thus need either a BIOS compatibility for older OSes that don't have EFI boot loaders. Example, only 64-bit versions of Windows can boot with an pure-EFI motherboard. And no, it doesn't need to be replaced to meet MS's mandate. The only thing MS says is that SecureBoot needs to be on by default to receive the Windows 8 logo certification. Which in itself in not required.

Whether one can turn SecureBoot on or off is up to the discretion of the OEM. There is nothing within the logo requirements that specific that SecureBoot cannot be turned off.

 

[FuturDreamz]

Not to mention that Linux already has UEFI support.