Re: A Real Threat
I can see the point a lot of you are making and I share the concerns with many others.
As I said before, it isn't so much the actual UEFI that I do not want - it's the ability for one company to decide to lock a system down.
Fedora should never have had to PAY for their OS to be run on any non-Apple computer. Why do I say non-Apple? because Apple is a completely different matter all together. They have their niche they have their products and they are happily making millions...
I am not an attorney, nor do I work for Microsoft, nor do I even work in the tech sector (anymore). But, hell, even *I* can craft the letter of the future.
Allow me to show you what *I* envision going down:
Dear Hardware Vendor,
In order to maintain the spirit of Social Responsibility we have found it necessary to enforce the standards that you previously agreed to. We believe in providing the most secure computing experience to our public users and as such feel it is of great importance that you remove the option to disable the UEFI in the products you manufacture. We feel that by allowing the end user to inadvertently deactivate the UEFI could essentially allow for the potential for the system to be compromised, exposing the user to the possible malware and virus infections, or worse. Therefore, we feel that if you are unable or unwilling to remove the option to deactivate the UEFI we will be forced to reconsider our partnership... because we care so very much about our users /snicker /snicker
Something along those lines. When you're producing hardware that meets the requirements for the world's computers and those computers all run Windows... and Microsoft comes down on you threatening to withhold the key that you need for your firmware. What are you going to do? Sue? Give them the finger and more or less sign your company's death certificate, or go along with it to maintain your business?
I don't think it's a stretch to guess what most vendors are going to do.
Microsoft is making a HUGE deal about the security element of UEFI... it's ground work... since when has MS ever cared about the security of their OS's? Seriously.
I read a lot of good answers, but a lot of people are posting it will never happen, or they're not worried about it... and that's well and good I appreciate the replies. But, you're not answering the "why" you feel that way. Besides the potential for law suits...
Last edited by ExSuSEusr; June 6th, 2012 at 04:17 AM.
"Only because the richest software company on the planet is utterly incompetent, and incapable of building a secure operating system. -- Carla Schroder
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