New SecureBoot Concerns Arise With Windows 10
Linux users are getting frightened after yesterday's news of SecureBoot on Windows 10 potentially not being disable-able.
With the upcoming Windows 10 hardware certification program by Microsoft, they aren't going to enforce that enabling/disabling SecureBoot be an option. OEM motherboard vendors can still decide themselves whether to have a SecureBoot toggle within their BIOS/UEFI setup menu, but as long as it's enabling, Microsoft won't care if it can be disabled. Microsoft confirmed this change of heart over SecureBoot disabling at the WinHEC hardware conference in Shenzhen.
Most Linux distributions out there are now SecureBoot-supported, but there's still fears over Microsoft some day revoking the Linux key or otherwise locking out users from their own operating system. Those running custom kernels and other environments that aren't SecureBoot signed could also be a problem in the future.
Right now I'm cautiously optimistic though that most motherboard vendors will still offer the option to disable SecureBoot, so it's not a nightmare scenario quite yet. At least these days more IHVs are concerning themselves with Linux thanks to SteamOS & Co. Windows 10 computers will start surfacing later this year.
With the upcoming Windows 10 hardware certification program by Microsoft, they aren't going to enforce that enabling/disabling SecureBoot be an option. OEM motherboard vendors can still decide themselves whether to have a SecureBoot toggle within their BIOS/UEFI setup menu, but as long as it's enabling, Microsoft won't care if it can be disabled. Microsoft confirmed this change of heart over SecureBoot disabling at the WinHEC hardware conference in Shenzhen.
Most Linux distributions out there are now SecureBoot-supported, but there's still fears over Microsoft some day revoking the Linux key or otherwise locking out users from their own operating system. Those running custom kernels and other environments that aren't SecureBoot signed could also be a problem in the future.
Right now I'm cautiously optimistic though that most motherboard vendors will still offer the option to disable SecureBoot, so it's not a nightmare scenario quite yet. At least these days more IHVs are concerning themselves with Linux thanks to SteamOS & Co. Windows 10 computers will start surfacing later this year.
153 Comments