Windows 8's locked bootloaders: much ado about nothing, or the end of the world as we know it?

Microsoft has published the hardware requirements that manufacturers must follow if they want to slap a "Designed for Windows 8" sticker onto their systems. In among many innocuous requirements - multitouch systems must support at least five points of touch, there must be at least 10 GB of free space available to the user, and more - are a set of requirements for Windows 8 systems' firmware.

These requirements have reignited Linux users' fears that they will be locked out of Windows 8 hardware. The concerns revolve around the use of a new feature called UEFI Secure Boot. All Windows 8 systems that meet Microsoft's certification requirements must use UEFI firmware with Secure Boot enabled.

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ARM: restriction and control

The story for ARM is rather different, however. On ARM Windows 8 systems, Microsoft's certification rules prohibit entering "custom mode"—users must not be able to add certificates of their own—and prohibit disabling secure boot completely. The ARM systems will all require the use of a signed operating system loader, and that operating system loader must be signed by Microsoft.

Microsoft's rules also specify that a secure boot failure must be fatal; there must be no option to override the failure and choose to boot the untrusted operating system.

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• Ars Technica

Tags: compatibility | learn | linux | security