[Nottingham] Microsoft's restricted boot

Alex Holt alex.holt at ntlworld.com
Fri May 18 11:07:55 UTC 2012


On 18/05/2012 11:04, Jason Irwin wrote:
> On 18/05/12 10:58, Alex Holt wrote:
>> Unfortunately not. Microsoft aren't requiring computers to only boot
>> Windows; their requirement is simply that computers support secure
>> boot in order to get Windows 8 certification.
> The lock is mandatory on ARM devices that are to run Win 8.
> 
> J.
> 

Indeed, I was restricting myself to x86.

The situation is different on ARM because -- as you said in your own
post -- Microsoft don't have an OS monopoly there, and also because
signed boot is already the standard there.

I'm not sure if Microsoft's monopoly on the desktop can by itself be
used as a reason to force them to require OEMs to allow secure boot to
be configured on ARM devices that ship with Windows 8. That seems like a
bit of a leap to me, especially when signed boot is not at all unusual
on ARM.

And even if it can, that only helps ARM devices. x86 is still going to
get screwed over.



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