linux4all | (no subject)

Something to be seriously concerned about, thanks to the reporting of our very own

Microsoft requires that machines conforming to the Windows 8 logo program and running a client version of Windows 8 ship with secure boot enabled. The two alternatives here are for Windows to be signed with a Microsoft key and for the public part of that key to be included with all systems, or alternatively for each OEM to include their own key and sign the pre-installed versions of Windows. The second approach would make it impossible to run boxed copies of Windows on Windows logo hardware, and also impossible to install new versions of Windows unless your OEM provided a new signed copy. The former seems more likely.
A system that ships with only OEM and Microsoft keys will not boot a generic copy of Linux.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I'd never heard of ZaReason!

I'm really not quite sure -- presumably they may do better business from the FOSS community?

They build computers specifically fro Linux. If the hardware vendors (Motherboard suppliers) create exclusively Windows secure boot boards, then finding compatible hardware will be problematic for the smaller vendors like ZaReason. There are more, but their names escape me. I've never bought a machine from ZaReason, I just know they exist.