[aklug] Re: Windows 8 + ubuntu

On 01/15/2013 07:19 AM, Tim Johnson wrote:
> I guess I don't understand the opposition. Perhaps you could tell
> us and save me some google time sifting out the polemics.
>

I'm not sure about opposition, but there are huge issues to consider,
both in terms of freedom and infrastructure. Here is a discussion on
Gentoo dev mailing list from last June:

http://www.mail-archive.com/gentoo-dev@lists.gentoo.org/msg50523.html

The crux, from my limited understanding, is that we are basically
putting ourselves at the mercy of Microsoft and possibly our distro
developers as well. On the one hand, one can released a signed
bootloader which loads anything (like our bootloaders do now). But
eventual some malware distributor incorporates that into his attack
system, and Microsoft or whoever decides to revoke the key. On the other
hand, if a distro tries to put out a "fully trusted" OS, they basically
have to created a full trust infrastructure, where even the 3rd party
modules have to be approved from the top.

And another part is that there is coreboot, which is an FSF supported
alternative to proprietary BIOS as well as UEFI. Even Torvalds thinks
UEFI is a bad idea, as it adds an unnecessary layer of complexity to the
boot process, and it doesn't really solve the problems that it is
supposed to solve.

-- 
frigidcode.com

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