Posted on 03/24/2015 7:52:28 AM PDT by ShadowAce
Remember the most talked about story of 2014? It was Microsoft loves Linux. It looks like Microsoft’s love for Linux is more like Mark Wahlberg’s love for Reese Witherspoon as we saw in the movie Fear.
If reports are to be trusted Microsoft’s survival mechanism may kick in again, with the new release of Windows. The legacy software maker may resort to ‘secure boot’ to block alternative operating systems on Windows PCs.
At Microsoft’s hardware conference WinHEC, new slides were shown which could mean bad news for Linux users. Machines shipping with Windows 10 may see OEMs enforcing Secure Boot without an option to disable the ‘feature’ meaning any operating system that the user wants to install will need to be digitally signed before Secure Boot will allow it to be installed, Red Hat had to pay for the privilege of getting Fedora signed.
Earlier on in the week it was revealed that Microsoft were going to release ROMs that can be installed on a selection of Chinese Android phones, namely the Xiaomi line-up. It now appears that Microsoft isn’t content with tackling Linux head-on with custom ROMs but has dragged up the fears over Secure Boot again.
With the advent of Windows 8, advocates of Free and Open Source software became worried over Microsoft’s secure boot functionality which was potentially going to prevent people from loading up a different OS on their system other than Windows, after the launch of the machines with Secure Boot the worry more or less went away as users were free to disable secure boot.
The slides pertaining to the secure boot implementation shipping with Windows 10 however have brought back the fears we had three years ago. The slide states ‘Win10 Desktop: It’s OEM option whether to allow end user to turn off Secure Boot’ and ‘Win10 Mobile: Must not allow secure boot to be turned off on retail device’, the latter statement regarding Windows Phone 10 is to be expected as Microsoft have never allowed users to install custom ROMs since Windows Phone 7, the reference to Windows 10 on Desktop however is worrying as it sets a new precedent where OEMs locking down tradition PCs become OK to do.
This news will affect users in the Linux community wildly differently. Some of the major Linux distributions such as Ubuntu managed to work with Microsoft to get signatures set up so that Ubuntu would be compatible with Secure Boot, however other distributions did not, most notably the GNU endorsed distributions. Use of GNU endorsed distros such as Trisquel is usually reserved to die-hard free software advocates who do not mind giving up some convenience in exchange for all the source code.
If Microsoft’s stance on this issue is not reversed it’s possible we will see a spike in sales by manufacturers such as System76 and ZaReason who ship computers running Linux out of the box without any signs of Secure Boot at all.
It’s also worth noting, if you do decide to buy a computer from the Windows 10 era make sure to do your homework and find out whether OEMs have disabled your ability to install the software you want on a device you own.
So if you need to troubleshoot windows or copy your files off the hard drive because windows will not boot then you cannot insert a Linux cd to boot to?
How about a usb flash drive?
Another thing i learned is to buy lenovo, hp, ibm or dell if you want to put linux on laptop. I went from acer to lenovo
When Apple exhibits fascist-level control over their platform, people applaud them for maintaining control and ensuring system stability. When Microsoft does it, people growls.
Interesting...
Maybe they are truly trying to stabilize their environment by closing some doors? They’ve been a pretty open platform, comparatively speaking to, say, Apple, but not Linux.
Apple produces and sells it's own hardware for its own OS.
MS produces an OS to run on commodity hardware that they do not (ostensibly) control or produce.
All the really good stuff in Windows was developed by Intel like USB, PCIe and advanced power management.
The rest of Windows is a hack.
If Apple can get a true USB working seamlessly, MS will be in serious trouble.
Couldn’t someone get around this by running other Operating Systems on VMs?
No real help for direct hardware access.
Would anyone at all like to bet against Microsoft offering special deals for those system makers that completely exclude Linux? I need some easy money.
Sooooo... you can choose NOT to install Windows and just install Linux on whatever hardware you buy. How is MS the bad guy there?
And, to clarify, I get that this is collaboration with hardware manufacturers, but so what? Sony collaborates with game makers to run on the ps4. Do we blame Sony for not running Wii games?
I’m thinking that if I ever get afflicted with Windows 10 (an unfortunate reality due to work obligations), I’ll just build Linux Virtual Machines for when I’m not using it for work stuff and surf/game/etc within that VM.
Lots of big corporations have severely hurt themselves by taking a “my way or the highway” approach. Sony comes to mind with Betamax and several other schemes.
Right now Microsoft is “danger close” to forcing millions of users to use Linux exclusively. It does so by being arrogant, insulting, intrusive, and so top heavy that users have no other choice.
All that is needed is for some company to produce a version of Linux that is efficient because it provides what users want, not what they think users need.
You seem to be misunderstanding the situation.
The problem is that a majority of pre-built Intel-based computers, that would run Linux just fine, are forcibly pre-loaded with Windows. You can't get them without paying the Windows tax.
So you pay the Windows tax, scrape Windows off the hard drive, and *** OH CRAP! *** you can't install Linux because Microsoft told the OEM hardware manufacturer to make it impossible to defeat the lock-out.
Sure, they phrase it as "optional". They have to say that. But if you think there isn't a lot of pressure being applied, you're willfully blind. This is MS SOP and has been for decades. Those of us who have multiple feet in all these camps every day -- Windows, Mac, Linux, BSD, etc. -- are very used to this crap, and cannot be easily fooled.
That said, Microsoft is not "the bad guy". What they're doing is not illegal. They're merely being assholes.
Sorry, you won't get me to take that bet. :)
But really, is there anything illegal about what they're doing? No. It's business. I may not like it, but I can't fault it as long as it's legal.
What the hardware manufacturers need to do is produce a series of identical machines with one difference -- no lockout, and no Windows installed.
I would say, "with Linux installed", but there are approximately 10 gazillion distros and releases and variants, and there's no way to justify the expense of supporting that diversity. Maybe make it an option to pre-install Linux. But overall, let the Linux user pick and choose.
1. Didn’t Fedora have to pay MS $1 to get Fedora signed?
2. There are two cases - one is you have a *computer* preloaded with windoze. Second case is you buy a *Mobo* a CPU, RAM etc. I think there will always be Mobos that you can buy that will load linux.
However, in this case what we'll end up seeing is ultimately less power and choice to the consumer. This itself is almost always a bad thing.
If you recall what happened with IE once Microsoft was satisfied with having killed off Netscape, and owned 90%+ of the browser market, is that development and features of IE ground to a halt. For years. It took Firefox's and Opera's innovations to get them to finally get off the stick and start actually improving IE.
I'm sure we'll figure out a way around Microsoft's bullying and bribery, but that just means I'll be building computers myself rather than buy something integrated and then wipe out the existing OS.
So...just run a Linux OS in a VM using Virtual Box. I've done it and it works great. You even have access to the Windows OS for file sharing between the two.
In fact, you can run a bridged connection to the hardware NIC and then shut off TCP/IP on the Windows side...thus denying access to Windows via the internet. So go ahead and use XP if you like.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.