Windows 10 might force Secure Boot upon you
If you are an average-level user you probably haven’t heard of Secure Boot and you’re probably reading this page through a Windows-powered PC. Chances are however that you are above average and you know exactly what Secure Boot is.
What is Secure Boot?
Secure Boot is a system included in the UEFI thought to avoid malware injection before the Operating System starts. Secure Boot’s work is pretty simple to understand: if active the code that runs after the UEFI is loaded (usually Operating Systems), must be provided with a signature key. If that isn’t provided, well the code won’t run.
Windows 8 and Secure Boot
When Windows 8 was about to be released, Microsoft announced to the OEMs that if they wanted to run it they would’ve needed to enable Secure Boot. Of course the Linux community didn’t stay silent and after much pressure Microsoft forced the OEMs to provide a switch to disable Secure Boot.
Windows 10 AND Secure Boot
Now that Windows 10 is getting nigh, however, unconfirmed sources say that in order to get a “Desinged for Windows 10” logo a OEM must have Secure Boot, but the switch to disable is optional and the decision will be up to the OEM itself. If that was to happen many PC wouldn’t be able to run a myriad of Linux distros. Many mainstream Linux distros like Ubuntu can run with Secure Boot enabled, however, there are many distros that can’t.
What do you think? Should Microsoft apply the same policy as Windows 8? Or is it okay?
Thanks to Pete for he image.
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