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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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Windows 10 May Make the Secure Boot Lock Out a Reality for Alternate OSs
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Said the attractive, cigar-smoking housewife to her girl-friend: "I got
started one night when George came home and found one burning in the ashtray."
(Score: 4, Insightful) by hash14 on Saturday May 30 2015, @01:43PM
One simple word: vertical integration.
(That's one word, right?)
I think it's bonkers that a software company[1] should be allowed to control the hardware on which it is allowed to run without running afoul of anti-trust law. It is clearly obvious that Microsoft is using its dominant position in the software world to impose conditions and restrictions outside their domain which would not be feasible if there were more competition in the marketplace. All these 'certified for Windows' stickers that hardware vendors put on their machines are a means for Microsoft to force adoption or deprecation of technologies of their choosing which has an undue and adverse effect in many domains. It is unfortunate that nobody has seen this anti-trust argument and taken action based on it, and this is what makes me sceptical that anyone will do so with this additional step of monopolistic abuse.
[1] In this case, the market share of Windows as well as the horizontal breadth of applications for which it is used is an important factor: in many embedded applications (as an example), software makers require precise control of the hardware - but since these are narrowly-tailored, specific applications this argument shouldn't apply to Windows.