[Discuss] Fighting UEFI

[gaf at blu.org (Jerry Feldman)]

On 07/29/2012 01:08 AM, Richard Pieri wrote:
> On 7/28/2012 10:39 PM, Guy Gold wrote:
>> It is pretty safe to say, that, Mac's aside, the vast majority of
>> systems that are running Linux, shipped with Windows on them when
>> leaving the OEM factory.
>
> So what?  Some computers that ship with Windows are either limited
> with Linux or don't work at all.  This isn't my opinion.  It's a fact.
>
>> If,
>> just for imagination, Secure boot was 100% tightly enforced, with no
>> option for changing  the key as Mr. Anderson pointed, 10 years ago,
>> how many of this list members would have not experienced with Linux ?
>
> Almost every commercial UNIX vendor has engaged in some form of
> hardware locking.  Sun.  IBM.  HP.  Data-General.  SGI.  Digital. 
> NCR.  Unisys.  Apple.  And a bunch of names and acronyms that most of
> you have never heard of.  They all made hardware that runs their own
> particular flavor of UNIX and won't run any other operating systems. 
> They've been doing it for over 30 years.
>
> MINIX was written in spite of UNIX vendor hardware locking.  If the
> IBM PC and PC/AT micros were locked like that then MINIX would have
> been written for the Motorola 68k, maybe for the Atari ST.  Linux
> would have followed suit.  If such a lockdown came ten years ago then
> Transmeta or PowerPC could have become the primary Linux
> architecture.  Either way we'd still have the Linux opportunities. 
> They'd just be on hardware other than Intel x86.
>
> The fuss about UEFI Secure Boot is nothing but Microsoft-hating FUD
> and I stand by my statements.  Secure Boot is a boon to consumers who
> just want their appliances to work.  It's a non-issue for the rest who
> wouldn't buy appliances in the first place.  And if you are in the
> second group and buy an appliance anyway then it's your own damned fault.
>
Richard, I guess I will join the dark side and agree with you. Most
consumers are not very computer literate, and all they want to do is to
turn their computers on and have them work. Secure boot is (1) a feature
that will help to prevent root-kittet Windows. and (2) it helps
Microsoft fight off competition, but to avoid expensive lawsuits they
have to allow a way for other systems to be able to boot.

For many years Microsoft had some very restricted language in their
vendor contracts. Their contracts with Compaq and HP did allow them to
ship business desktops and laptops with Linux pre-installed, and HP did
qualify some systems for Linux. More recently the language in the
contracts were made less restrictive. This allowed companies, like Dell,
to ship Linux preinstalled on consumer laptops.

So far RedHat is the only Linux vendor that has signed an agreement with
Microsoft so that Fedora 18 will install out of the box. (A discussion
hs at http://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/12368.html).

-- 
Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org>
Boston Linux and Unix
PGP key id:3BC1EB90 
PGP Key fingerprint: 49E2 C52A FC5A A31F 8D66  C0AF 7CEA 30FC 3BC1 EB90