is this true

[Stephen M. Webb]

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On 09/27/2011 07:47 AM, swfiua at gmail.com wrote:
> It is sort of true.
>
> I've only read a bit about this, but the problem as I see it is that it is
> down to the OEM's whether they let their customers configure the set of
keys
> that the secure boot software will have. MS have said that's not down to
> us, that is the OEM's choice + if they only use our key then that's not our
> fault! But, I do wonder if you are an OEM and you agree to configure your
> machines this way then you'll get a break on the price from MS.
>
It is true that MS Windows 8 will only boot on UEFI-based hardware,
and that one of the features of UEFI is secure boot in which the boot
OS must be signed and validated by keys burned in to ROM.  It is
possible, even likely, that there will be motherboards available that
will only have MS keys and the secure boot will be disabled.

It is not a conspiracy by Microsoft but an effort by a consortium of
players to reduce the prevalence of nefarious software, and that
effort has unintended consequences.

The reason it is likely that mobos will be produced that boot only MS
Windows 8 is because the margins for OEMs is very slight at best, so
they tend to do the minimum necessary to get Windows to boot, and
nothing more.  MS is correct in that it is up to the hardware
manufacturer to conform to the UEFI spec, and that's unlikely given
they have never tended to conform to any other spec developed.

There is no need for Microsoft to offer kickbacks to OEMs to exclude
alternate OSes.  Microsoft is most worried about unauthorized copies
of their own software installed onto OEM equipment, and UEFI does not
solve that problem.

- -- 
Stephen M. Webb  <stephen at ubuntu.com>
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