Any input on this from the Linux people?

http://www.zdnet.c...i-and-fedora/11187

The _idea_ behind UEFI itself is actually pretty good. But Frankly, I think the implementation is a bit of a brain dead proprietary solution.

I can see clearly what Microsoft is doing, its attempting to lock up the PC market (in business think, its good for them). I took a quick look around on Wikipedia to see who was involved with the development of UEFI, its full of big names in hardware and software -- so big business protecting its interests.

Unfortunately, this leaves open operating systems out in the cold. Its going to affect the smaller distributions the most. The distributions will likely find some sort of workaround just like Fedora has. I'm surprised that Torvalds has been so accepting of this. I'm also surprised that Theo de Raadt (of OpenBSD), and Rich Stallman haven't had more to say (or at least, I havent seen anything in my newsfeeds about it).

edit: it also seems to me that this really isnt a proper solution to security problems, more of a 'make users feel good' thing because of the addition of new measures.

edit: it also seems to me that this really isnt a proper solution to security problems, more of a 'make users feel good' thing because of the addition of new measures.

I think Torvalds knows, but isn't publicly admitting that this will be the most hacked security safeguard in history and the tools to do it will be bigger than DeCSS.

To think the entire Open world is going to bow to Microsoft and cough up $99 to unlock the firmware is ridiculous.

I see blackhats and whitehats all staying up late to crack this.

Not to defend Microsoft here, but this isn't an issue for normal PCs, only for ARM based tablets

Normal PCs (including x86 tablets): New PCs will come with UEFI secure boot on, but Microsoft REQUIRES that the user can disable it in the BIOS setup. If secure boot cannot be disabled by the user then the PC will not meet Microsoft's Windows 8 certification. Want to install Linux, BSD, old version of Windows, etc? Just turn it off, no hacking required.

Windows based ARM tablets: UEFI secure boot will be on and Microsoft REQUIRES that it CAN NOT be disabled. This is where the keys being acquired by Fedora, Ubuntu, etc come in.

Posted by Washu Windows based ARM tablets: UEFI secure boot will be on and Microsoft REQUIRES that it CAN NOT be disabled. This is where the keys being acquired by Fedora, Ubuntu, etc come in.

Late reply is better than no reply.

OK, I get it. This only applies to ARM tablets. I have no intention of ever owning a tablet computer.

I've already adopted Android both tablet (Asus TF101) and phone (Galaxy II) formats. I've traveled overseas with a netbook before, worked out well. Traveled with my tablet down in the US last summer, even better than the netbook.

Notebooks are only going to get smaller.

As long as I have to support Cisco hardware, I don't think I'll be able to give up a notebook for mobile computing or is there an RS-232 app out there I don't know about?

Posted by Radio2600 As long as I have to support Cisco hardware, I don't think I'll be able to give up a notebook for mobile computing or is there an RS-232 app out there I don't know about?

usb to rs-232?

The one I tried on a tablet didn't work so hot.

I'm sure a better one will come out sooner or later.

Supporting Cisco and other networking gear as well I feel your pain. I've used a number of USB->RS-232 adapters an 90% of them are crap. Finding a good one seems to be luck of the draw. If you find one that works well, take my advice and order more before they change the chipset to something shitty.