Linked by Thom Holwerda on Fri 23rd Sep 2011 22:22 UTC, submitted by kragil
The story about how secure boot for Windows 8, part of UEFI, will hinder the use of non-signed binaries and operating systems, like Linux, has registered at Redmond as well. The company posted about it on the Building Windows 8 blog - but didn't take any of the worries away. In fact, Red Hat's Matthew Garrett, who originally broke this story, has some more information - worst of which is that Red Hat has received confirmation from hardware vendors that some of them will not allow you to disable secure boot.
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Member since:2006-09-16
What kind of fanboy response is this? Microsoft could behave better. So could Apple. Poor behavior by Apple does not excuse poor behavior by Microsoft.
I fail to see the relevance of anything that Apple does to Microsoft's attempt to use an avoidable side-effect of a desirable security feature to lock out other operating systems.
Apple plays the lock-in game, too. That doesn't make what Microsoft is doing right. Apple and Microsoft are both wrong. Is that hard to understand?
RE[3]: Pressure Microsoft
by Dr.Mabuse on Sat 24th Sep 2011 05:48
in reply to "RE[2]: Pressure Microsoft"
Member since:2009-05-19
RE[3]: Pressure Microsoft
by f0dder on Sat 24th Sep 2011 05:53
in reply to "RE[2]: Pressure Microsoft"
Member since:2009-08-05
RE[3]: Pressure Microsoft
by viton on Mon 26th Sep 2011 16:50
in reply to "RE[2]: Pressure Microsoft"
Member since:2005-08-09
poor behavior
Replacing dreaded BIOS/MBR with more adequate system is considered as "poor behavior"?
I don't think the whole "secure boot" thing is a problem because there are lot of mobo makers who fight with each other for every cent. And this feature will force the "potentially linux" consumers to avoid their stuff.
RE[2]: Pressure Microsoft
by redshift on Sat 24th Sep 2011 17:52
in reply to "RE: Pressure Microsoft"
Member since:2006-05-06
Ah yes, because what Apple is doing with EFI + OSX is so much better?
Yes it was better. EFI is technologically superior to ancient BIOS and closer to the OpenFirmware that apple used on PowerPC. Alternative OSs may have had to adapt to EFI, but they were not locked out of it with keys.
I would not mind the security enhancement in UEFI as long as the user gets a key to run their own code.
If vendors don't offer a way to turn off the feature, SecureBoot will be a prime target for cracking since it will thoroughly irritate people who have the skills and motivation to break it.
RE[3]: Pressure Microsoft
by Neolander on Sun 25th Sep 2011 07:02
in reply to "RE[2]: Pressure Microsoft"
Member since:2010-03-08
Take it with a big pinch of salt, but if I remember correctly, Macs ship with a badly broken (and outdated) implementation of EFI, which gives headaches to everyone trying to run an OS which implements EFI support from the spec.
It is likely that OS X depends on some quirks of this implementation, both making it incompatible with PCs which run standard UEFI and making OSs compatible with standard UEFI incompatible with "Mac-EFI". That would essentially make Apple's EFI yet another proprietary firmware, which just happens to be based on EFI.
Again, take this with a big pinch of salt.
RE[2]: Pressure Microsoft
by lucac81 on Sat 24th Sep 2011 18:31
in reply to "RE: Pressure Microsoft"
Member since:2007-09-13
RE[2]: Pressure Microsoft
by Bill Shooter of Bul on Sat 24th Sep 2011 19:38
in reply to "RE: Pressure Microsoft"
Member since:2006-07-14
Macs don't require the use secure boot, do they? They prevent the OS from booting on non Apple hardware, but that's different: its limiting the use of their software. Microsoft limits the use of the hardware that works with their software. I think Microsoft's is much worse. Software is usually cheaper than hardware.
News
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 22:33 UTC
Official Apple statement on PRISM and privacy: "Regardless of the circumstances, our Legal team conducts an evaluation of each request and, only if appropriate, we retrieve and deliver the narrowest possible set of information to the authorities. In fact, from time to time when we see inconsistencies or inaccuracies in a request, we will refuse to fulfill it." This is basically Apple re-publishing their earlier statement in a more official manner. You either believe it, or you don't.
Linked by Anonymous on 06/18/13 22:26 UTC
The open source Contiki operating system and its commercial Thingsquare distribution are making strides towards the connected home. According to a Computerworld article, a new LED light bulb manufacturer is putting small computers into their light bulbs. Each computer runs the Contiki OS, which gives each bulb an IP address and allows them to be controlled with a smartphone application. To connect the bulbs to the application, the bulbs use both Wi-Fi and the much lower power IEEE 802.15.4 mesh technology.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 22:25 UTC
"Google asked the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on Tuesday to ease long-standing gag orders over data requests it makes, arguing that the company has a constitutional right to speak about information it's forced to give the government. The legal filing, which cites the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech, is the latest move by the California-based tech giant to protect its reputation in the aftermath of news reports about sweeping National Security Agency surveillance of Internet traffic." Draining the ditch after the cow has drowned in it.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 17:45 UTC
"I can't find one person who has been using the Nexus 7 for an extended period of time, and hasn't seen a massive downgrade in performance. Just what kind of downgrade are we talking here? I cannot pick up my Nexus 7 without experiencing problems like a lag of ten seconds, or more, just to rotate the display; touches refusing to acknowledged; stuttering notification panel actions; and unresponsive apps." Fully and utterly agreed. My Nexus 7 was blazing-fast and awesome for a few months, and at some point, it just started sucking. Just like that. I've tried loads of ROMs, and nothing helps.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 17:32 UTC, submitted by poundsmack
A new release of the hobby operating system MenuetOS! The release notes are a bit non-descript, but you'll have to take what you can get: "updates and improvements (picview, httpc, ehci, ...)".
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/17/13 17:58 UTC
"The Internet is one of the most transformative technologies of our lifetimes. But for 2 out of every 3 people on earth, a fast, affordable Internet connection is still out of reach. And this is far from being a solved problem. There are many terrestrial challenges to Internet connectivity - jungles, archipelagos, mountains. There are also major cost challenges. Right now, for example, in most of the countries in the southern hemisphere, the cost of an Internet connection is more than a month's income. Solving these problems isn't simply a question of time: it requires looking at the problem of access from new angles. So today we're unveiling our latest moonshot from Google[x]: balloon-powered Internet access." Insane.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/17/13 17:52 UTC
"MineAssemble is a tiny bootable Minecraft clone written partly in x86 assembly. I made it first and foremost because a university assignment required me to implement a game in assembly for a computer systems course. Because I had never implemented anything more complex than a 'Hello World' bootloader before, I decided I wanted to learn about writing my own kernel code at the same time. Note that the goal of this project was not to write highly efficient hand-optimized assembly code, but rather to have fun and write code that balances readability and speed. This is primarily accomplished by proper commenting and consistent code structuring." Just cool.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/14/13 21:03 UTC
Jon Rubinstein, former CEO of Palm: "Well, I'm not sure I would have sold the company to HP. That's for sure. Talk about a waste. Not that I had any choice because when you sell a company you don't get to decide that. Obviously, the board and shareholders decide that. If we had known they were just going to shut it down and never really give it a chance to flourish, what would have been the point of selling the company? I think the deal we had with Verizon really hurt us, but who knew that at the time? These things are all hindsight."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/14/13 20:46 UTC
"And so it is with Dell's Alienware X51 R2, a small form factor gaming PC in console digs. It's shaped similar to Microsoft's Xbox 360 Slim, and though it's slightly larger than either a 360 or PlayStation 3, the X51 R2 would be right at home in a living room setting nestled next to a large screen TV. Indeed, it's adept at running Steam's Big Picture mode, and if your primary objective is to play games in the living room, go ahead and consider the X51 R2 a hybrid game console." This is obviously not the only machine like this - still, these are very valid console alternatives even for those that don't like being hunched over with a cramped WASD-claw. Also, PC gamers among us: could you get away with the $699 model for gaming?
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/14/13 17:32 UTC
From Bloomberg: "Microsoft, the world's largest software company, provides intelligence agencies with information about bugs in its popular software before it publicly releases a fix, according to two people familiar with the process. That information can be used to protect government computers and to access the computers of terrorists or military foes." The lid has officially been blown off.More News »
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Member since:
2009-08-05
Ah yes, because what Apple is doing with EFI + OSX is so much better?