Linux Has Not Won, Microsoft is as Dangerous as Ever, Fie on Secure Boot
Every time you buy a computer that bundles a Windows license just to save a few bucks over buying a Linux machine, you're shooting yourself in the foot. It doesn't matter that you blow Windows away and install Linux-- it still counts as a Windows sale, which reinforces your vendor's belief that they need Windows users and can safely ignore Linux users. It sends money to Redmond. It rewards all the junkware, adware, and spyware vendors that load their garbage on Windows PCs. And it cements the anti-competitive status quo more firmly. Buying Android devices sends a significant revenue stream into Microsoft's pockets-- Linux PCs and bare hardware are almost our only remaining options to avoid paying the Microsoft tax. Quoting:The platform key is the firmware vendor's key. Each motherboard will have a platform key controlled by the firmware provider. That key is used to sign the actual SB keys packaged with the system at ship time. Microsoft has no involvement in that at all, except to ask the vendors to sign their key. If the mobo vendor wants to include Microsoft's key, they put it in the list and sign it with the platform key. If they want to include anyone else's key - as well as or instead of Microsoft's key - they put it in the list and sign it with the platform key. The concept that the single platform key controlled by the firmware vendor is used to sign *multiple* OS vendor keys is expressly designed to allow multiple keys to be trusted 'from the factory', precisely the opposite of what you suggest in the article. Diverting Linux Resources Much too much of Linux history is about workarounds and diversions. Here we are with yet another one forced on us by our good friends in Redmond. Red Hat, SUSE, Canonical, and others have devoted a good chunk of money and developer time to trying to resolve Secure Boot follies. This is yet one more Microsoft tax that all of us pay, even when we don't buy Microsoft products. Resources [sf-lug] anti-ooxml petition picking up steam "It is stunning to see that Microsoft has succeeded in actually bottling up the ISO by flooding ISO with members who will only vote on one issue: MOOX. They fail to show up for any other vote, and so nothing gets done." Linux Foundation Releases Statement Calling for National Bodies to Vote "No" on OOXML "I believe that Microsoft has profoundly damaged the credibility of the standard setting system." Rod Smith's Managing EFI Boot Loaders for Linux: Dealing with Secure Boot is the best Secure Boot howto I've found. Be sure to pass a dollar or two into his PayPal account if you find it useful. Microsoft has never stopped trying to control the bootloader-- He Who Controls the Bootloader describes how MS sabotaged BeOS. Launching the BeOS on Hitachi FLORA Prius systems is the cached howto enable hidden BeOS installations that is mentioned in the article. |
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Subject | Topic Starter | Replies | Views | Last Post |
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UEFI ruse | wanderson | 34 | 4,722 | Mar 8, 2013 4:01 PM |
Not joining the either/or position | Steerpike | 21 | 4,482 | Mar 7, 2013 9:59 AM |
only microsoft? | questioner | 1 | 3,451 | Dec 7, 2012 6:12 PM |
Someone had to say it | djohnston | 40 | 4,493 | Dec 7, 2012 4:58 PM |
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