Linux has been on working on ARM devices for years. Sure, it might not run on the forthcoming Windows 8 tablets as it is now, because of variations in how boot works and other minor hardware differences; but you can bet that, if there was no secure boot requirement, people would have it up and running quite soon after they were to become available.
I understand the benefits of secure boot, and I am all for having it enabled by default on all new machines shipping with Windows 8. But I also think that you should be allowed to choose the software that runs on hardware that you own. The option to disable secure boot should be allowed, as it is on x86 hardware; or, a possibly better option would be the ability to add your own trusted keys to the secure boot mechanism so that Linux and other OS's could take advantage of the secure boot functionality.
Of course, it remains to be seen how successful Windows 8 ARM devices will be in the market. This may turn out to be a non-issue.
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