Microsoft isn't the enemy when it comes to blocking Linux on Windows 8 PCs

The Free Software Foundation seems to have caused a bit of a stir the other day by calling on PC users to stand up for their freedom to install free software onto their systems and demand that OEMs be responsible in how they use the UEFI ’secure boot’ feature on Windows 8 PCs.

Note: For background on UEFI and ’secure boot’ check out some of my previous posts on the matter:

- Yes, UEFI ’secure boot’ could lock out Linux from Windows 8 PCs
- Microsoft confirms that UEFI ’secure boot’ might lock out Linux and older versions of Windows from new PCs
- Windows 8 certification will make it ‘difficult or impossible’ to install Linux on PCs

This call to action seems to have created a rift here on ZDNet. In the ‘Open Source’ corner is Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, who calls UEFI a ‘cage’ and urges everyone to sign the FSF’s petition so that ‘your PC remains in your hands and not Microsoft’s’. In the ‘Windows’ corner is Ed Bott, who wonders who ’Linux fanatics’ want to make ‘Windows 8 less secure’.

Can’t we all just get along? No … oh well, it was worth a try.

Note: It’s worth pointing out that ’secure boot’ wouldn’t just prevent PC owners from installing Linux on their system, but it would also block the installation of older versions of Windows too.

See, the problem here is that in order to see the real issue, you have to look beyond party lines. If you see this issue as a ‘Windows vs. Linux’ or ‘Windows vs. Open Source’ issue, then you FAIL, and you FAIL hard. Why? Because the ‘enemy’ (and I use that word loosely) here isn’t Microsoft or Linux or even ’secure boot’ - it’s the PC OEMs who will be responsible for building the Windows 8 PCs.

It is true that Microsoft is making ’secure boot’ a mandatory part of the Windows 8 logo certification program, which means that if any OEM wants to slap that Windows 8 logo on the PCs they’re shoveling out of the door, those systems are going to have ’secure boot’ enabled. And no big-box OEM is going to sell uncertified PCs because that would put them at an enormous disadvantage from a marketing point of view.

So ’secure boot’ is coming.

But what’s important to note here is that Microsoft making ’secure boot’ mandatory isn’t part of some grand plan at world domination. ’Secure boot’ is a good thing because it will be a valuable line of defense against rootkit malware infection. Rootkits are nasty are damn hard to remove, so anything that blocks them from being installed is a good thing. Bott is right, ’secure boot’ will make Windows 8 more secure.

But …

Next –>

(Image credit: Silly Little Man)