[U-co] [FSF] Restricted Boot webcomic contest winner announced

[Jhosman Lizarazo]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Free Software Foundation <info en fsf.org>
Date: 2012/7/5
Subject: [FSF] Restricted Boot webcomic contest winner announced
To: Jhosman Lizarazo <yo en jhosman.com>


BOSTON, Massachusetts, USA — Thursday, July 5th, 2012 — The Free Software
Foundation (FSF) today announced the winner of its Restricted Boot webcomic
contest. The winning entry comes from Erik Steinmann, and will be featured
on the front page of FSF.org <http://www.fsf.org> for the month of July, in
addition to being used in other materials published by the organization.
Since the comic is freely licensed, the FSF is encouraging others to share
it on their own sites as well.

In the Fall of 2011, the FSF issued a statement to computer makers, urging
them to reject Restricted Boot technology, concerned that Microsoft's
Windows 8 certification standards would impose rules preventing users from
installing free software operating systems on most computers. Thus far,
over 30,000 confirmed individual signatures have been added to the
statement, titled "Stand up for your freedom to install free software."
Twenty-five organizations have also expressed their support.

Then in December, Microsoft apparently conceded to public pressure by
quietly updating the certification requirements with a mandate that a
desktop computer user must be able to control (and disable) the Secure Boot
feature on any Windows 8 computer that is not based on ARM technology. This
looked like a victory for free software users, as it meant a user could
install GNU/Linux or another free software operating system in place of
Windows 8. But, Microsoft also added a treacherous certification mandate
for makers of ARM-based computers -- such as a tablets, netbooks, and
smartphones -- requiring them to build their machines with Restricted Boot
technology. Such computers are designed to lock a user into only being able
to run Windows 8, absolutely preventing her from being able to install a
free software operating system on her computer.

Since smartphones and tablets are some of the most commonly used computers,
the FSF launched the Restricted Boot webcomic contest to collect materials
that could be used to "raise awareness and put pressure on Microsoft and
computer makers."

"I'd like to thank everyone who submitted an entry to the contest, as well
as our panel of judges. With over 30,000 signatures to our statement and
over a dozen high-quality submissions to our contest, I'm confident our
message that Restricted Boot is a mistake has the attention of Microsoft
and computer-makers alike. Now we need take the next step of turning this
support into tangible results," said Joshua Gay, FSF's licensing and
compliance manager.

The FSF also recently published a comprehensive assessment of the issues
posed by both Secure Boot and Restricted Boot for GNU/Linux and other free
software operating system distributions at
www.fsf.org/campaigns/secure-boot-vs-restricted-boot/whitepaper-web,
specifically addressing announcements made by Fedora and Ubuntu.

The panel of judges included Chris Webber, Rob Myers, Jason Self, Benjamin
Mako Hill, ginger coons, Aaron Williamson, and Richard Stallman.
 [image: Restricted Boots -- it's for your
safety]<http://www.fsf.org/campaigns/secure-boot-vs-restricted-boot/statement>

[image: Creative Commons
License]<http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/>This
work by Erik Steinmann
<http://eriksteinmann.nl/secureboot_webcomic.html>is licensed under a
Creative
Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported
License<http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/>.

 About Secure Boot vs Restricted Boot

When done correctly, Secure Boot is designed to protect against malware by
preventing computers from loading unauthorized binary programs when
booting. In practice, this means that computers implementing it won't boot
unauthorized operating systems -- including initially authorized systems
that have been modified without being re-approved. This could be a feature
deserving of the name, as long as the user is able to authorize the
programs she wants to use, so she can run free software written and
modified by herself or people she trusts. However, we are concerned that
Microsoft and hardware manufacturers will implement these boot restrictions
in a way that will prevent users from booting anything other than Windows.
In this case, we are better off calling the technology Restricted Boot,
since such a requirement would be a disastrous restriction on computer
users and not a security feature at all.

   -

   Statement opposing Restricted Boot:
   http://www.fsf.org/campaigns/secure-boot-vs-restricted-boot/statement
   -

   FSF Secure Boot recommendations for free software operating systems:

   http://www.fsf.org/campaigns/secure-boot-vs-restricted-boot/whitepaper-web

About the Free Software Foundation

The Free Software Foundation, founded in 1985, is dedicated to promoting
computer users' right to use, study, copy, modify, and redistribute
computer programs. The FSF promotes the development and use of free (as in
freedom) software -- particularly the GNU operating system and its
GNU/Linux variants -- and free documentation for free software. The FSF
also helps to spread awareness of the ethical and political issues of
freedom in the use of software, and its Web sites, located at fsf.org and
gnu.org, are an important source of information about GNU/Linux. Donations
to support the FSF's work can be made at http://donate.fsf.org. Its
headquarters are in Boston, MA, USA.
Media Contacts

Joshua Gay
Licensing and Compliance Manager
Free Software Foundation
+1 (617) 542 5942 x20 licensing en fsf.org

###

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