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posted by martyb on Saturday May 30 2015, @01:52AM   Printer-friendly
from the Embrace-Extend-Extinguish dept.

At its WinHEC hardware conference in Shenzhen, China, Microsoft talked about the hardware requirements for Windows 10. The precise final specs are not available yet, so all this is somewhat subject to change, but right now, Microsoft says that the switch to allow Secure Boot to be turned off is now optional. Hardware can be Designed for Windows 10 and can offer no way to opt out of the Secure Boot lock down.

The presentation is silent on whether OEMs can or should provide support for adding custom certificates.


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  • (Score: 2) by vux984 on Saturday May 30 2015, @09:20PM

    by vux984 (5045) on Saturday May 30 2015, @09:20PM (#190216)

    But the fact of the matter is that many vendors are short-sighted enough to think that there's only one key that needs to be loaded into the firmware and that no one will ever have to change it. After all, every additional feature costs money (dammit!) and if the MBAs don't want to invest in it, then you're screwed and stuck with a one-trick-pony pile of silicon.

    Here's the deal as I see it. No... the cost of making secure boot non optional is negligible etc; and the cost of developing it has already been completed. And vendors will have product lines that DO allow for linux, for customers who want it. So they're going to be building and maintaining it anyway. Code-reuse for the win.

    Microsoft and the Vendors will need an incentive to lock them down.

    Blocking some tiny fraction of users from installing Linux on the hardware simply isn't worth Microsoft providing an incentive to the vendors. How much of a discount are they going to offer on OEM licenses to block 1/4 of a percent from re-imaging with linux on a new unit, 1/2 of a percent re-imaging with linux when the unit is 4 years old. And both of these groups paid for their OEM license?? Anything MS would pay vendors in the form of discounts etc to block linux on these units would be throwing money down a hole.

    So what will that incentive be? Where's the big money?

    This is the endgame that I see:

    Subscription based Windows 10. When that happens then there is a proper incentive to lock out other OSes. Because if I can wipe windows and install linux, I stop subscribing. Vendors will probably get in on it too. Free hardware, paid over time as part of your windows subscription, etc.

    AT that point, yes, we will see a fragmentation of the market. Disposable windows 10 only subscription hardware. This is going to happen.

    Will that be the death of linux? no. Because at that point there will be a real demand for Linux preinstalled hardware. Right now the linux crowd, by and large, either builds their own whitebox or reimages a linux friendly computer that came with windows because its cheaper than buying it with no-OS. So vendors see almost no real demand for linux.

    When windows 10 goes subscription, that all ends. And if you want linux you'll buy hardware for it. And vendors will step up and offer it.

    Meahwile, the disposable windows subscription hardware will see a jailbreaking; mod-chip; core-boot reflash community spring up.

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