This article is written by HirePulse, an excellent Australian services directory for freelancers, consultants, contractors and service providers.
There’s a lot of noise being generated on the blogosphere regarding Microsoft’s seemingly changing stance on Secure Boot requirements. The concern is rooted in the requirements that Microsoft have mandated that devices that use ARM processors are to ship with Secure Boot mode switched on – permanently. There are also troubling rules for x86 type hardware certification.
So what is Secure Boot?
Secure Boot is a function of an interface between the operating system and a platform’s firmware. Historically we refer to this as the BIOS (Basic Input Output System). The BIOS translates between the operating system (ie Windows), and the little programs that reside on and control the various bits of hardware in a computer (ie Firmware).
Effectively one of the problems that existed with security on a system is that one can boot up with an alternative operating system (ie Linux) and use this to breach the security of a residing operating system (ie The original Windows we installed).
So what they’ve done now is develop a clever system called UEFI which is short for Unified Extensible Firmware Interface.
OK, So What is UEFI?
UEFI is a really welcome change to the old BIOS standard. It allows for much faster boot speeds, facilitates larger and more powerful peripherals to interface with the operating system, and has enhanced security from physical attacks.
Back to Secure Boot and what the rules are
So, one function of UEFI is Secure boot, which effectively stops us from booting up another operating system on that piece of hardware, be it a computer, laptop, phone, tablet pc or server. For Windows 8 hardware certification, it is required that the Secure Boot mode be switched on when the unit is shipped, but said that manufacturers could allow it to be switched off after. But – only if the device has an Intel x86 style architecture.
Those devices that use ARM (Advanced RISC Microprocessor), which will cover a large amount of low cost and powerful tablets and phones must be shipped with Secure Boot turned on, forever. People who wish to dual boot an ARM device will simply not be able to do so. Presumably, if ARM based desktops are released, the Windows 8 hardware requirements will be the same, and no other operating systems will work on ARM systems.
So how does this affect me?
Well, this could be an issue if you ever want to run something other than Windows on your ARM device. Furthermore, it is also possible that OEMS could ship x86 architected PCs out with no option to remove Secure Boot. It’s easier not to put the option into the UEFI right?
While you might not care to use Linux, Microsoft have labelled it as a major threat and seem to be attempting to use the clout of their hardware certificate program to marginalise other operating systems even more. Linux has been labelled as a competitive threat to Windows, but more importantly, a bigger threat could come from Google who are working on Desktop Operating Systems already.
Windows 8 will be great, and the UEFI will be a good thing too, but just be sure when you next purchase some hardware, that you will have the freedom to run the operating system that you want to.
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