Microsoft continues to make life difficult for Linux

[slickymaster]

Because of the fact that all versions of 64-bit PCs with Windows Certification Program, certified by Windows, use UEFI instead of BIOS, Microsoft intended to impose a way that hardware manufacturers have the Secure Boot functionality active and Microsoft keys installed, what somehow can restrict which installed operating systems computers may have.

Several Linux projects, as is the case with Fedora or Suse, decided to acquire these keys and implement them in their distros, and according to James Bottomley, of the Technical Council of the Linux Foundation, the acquisition of a key is a simple and inexpensive (only $ 99) process.
However, the bureaucracy imposed by Microsoft, after the acquisition of the key is unfortunate, because a contract is required for its use making it a complete nightmare.

See Adventures in Microsoft UEFI Signing post at his blog and Microsoft Holding Keys To Linux Foundation's Secure Boot Solution article.

[Lars Noodén]

Secure Boot closes off one almost completely irrelevant vector for malware. These games with the keys simply confirm that it is more about creating barriers to those who would want to casually try Linux. The best solution would be to get the OEMs to abandon 'secure' boot, but all the Linux vendors combined would still have little pull.

This greatly hinders dual boot, too. And I guess this may be the end of live CDs/DVDs, too, if the optical media cannot boot.

[slickymaster]

Couldn't agree more with you. But it is a shame that still remains the corporate will and not the individual will who gets to decide what we can choose.

[Paqman]

I think any hassles it generates for desktop Linux on x86 are just collateral damage. Microsoft's intended target for Secure Boot was the ARM devices, where they were worried about getting slaughtered by Android and Ios. They knew the only way they could compete was to force the OEMs to lock the competition out completely.

If they were really that worried about desktop Linux on x86 they would have insisted on the same restrictions they did on ARM.

[grahammechanical]

Have any of you seen this statement?

In what is largely an accident of release timing, from what I can tell (and please correct me if I'm wrong), this actually makes Ubuntu 12.10 the first general release of any OS to support Secure Boot.

in this blog:

http://web.dodds.net/~vorlon/wiki/bl..._Ubuntu_12.10/

[sffvba[e0rt]

Have any of you seen this statement?



in this blog:

http://web.dodds.net/~vorlon/wiki/bl..._Ubuntu_12.10/

Yup, read that before... all to do with timing. Fedora would have been second if F17 hadn't slipped.


404

[swoll1980]

Somebody will crack it. Not worried...

[stalkingwolf]

perhaps if the vendors dont have the horsepower , we as "the people " should make our position known to vendors . in the form of reduced revenue.
if we quit buying their products they will either listen or go broke.

And yes it would require a re assesment of what actually are needs and what are wants.

what are each of us willing to give up or put off to gain the desired goal?

[Gone fishing]

Never put down to maliciousness what can be put down to stupidity; Obviously this is both! It is a transparent attempt to protect Microsoft's monopoly under the guise of increasing security – I can't remember the last time I saw a boot virus 1998 perhaps?

Obviously it will be cracked or the keys obtained by male-ware writers. Although I am not too sure of the technology it seems that MS may be creating new vectors for attack, presumably male-ware will now only need to modify the Windows boot process slightly, to render the system un-bootable, creating opportunities for extortion and presumably when male-ware writers get the key making it more difficult to to remove the rootkit.

Somebody will crack it. Not worried...

I am - we shouldn't need to crack things to use our own boxes, not only that, in some areas it will be illegal to use that crack and MS will undoubtedly feign moral indignation when this happens, probably equating the distros that use it to male-ware.

[KiwiNZ]

I have a Laptop running Win 8 it has secure boot, it also runs Kubuntu. Storm in a tea cup, there is nor MSFT conspiracy.