Linked by Elv13 on Sun 17th Jun 2012 10:35 UTC
"The UEFI secure boot mechanism has been the source of a great deal of concern in the free software community, and for good reason: it could easily be a mechanism by which we lose control over our own systems. Recently, Red Hat's Matthew Garrett described how the Fedora distribution planned to handle secure boot in the Fedora 18 release. That posting has inspired a great deal of concern and criticism, though, arguably, about the wrong things."
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Member since:2010-02-18
distro makers should not offer to voluntarily go with MS's lockout plan.
Except if they want to compete in the server business (RHEL vs. Windows Server 8). Having a checkbox to tick "protected boot process" might come in useful when trying to secure government contracts, whereas having that checkbox empty might hurt sales.
Even NIST is aware that firmware level attacks might be a problem.
MJG is paid by Redhat, and so he will work on what's best for them. Compiling your own kernel is so far down the requirements lists for enterprise servers that they don't care about it much. They just need a way to _somehow_ get around the lock-down for their own development (and the geeks) - and right now, there is.
Member since:2005-11-15
I failed to see how the proposed solution is somewhat unfitting. He asked for a simple jump or switch on motherboards, nothing more. I think it is the best and simplest solution I ever heard. It will not lessen what Red Hat can do or claim for their systems and provides a fair level playing field for all others involved on linux/*BSD, or whatever camps.
Member since:2009-08-18
Going for abominations like this Fedora plan (where you can't use your own compiled kernel, modified drivers, etc.) should be the absolute no-go, and distro makers should not offer to voluntarily go with MS's lockout plan. Instead they should join the effort in full to lobby for including the option to switch off UEFI SB on every and each UEFI hardware.
That would mean death to them then.
Features
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 21:38 UTC
At an event earlier today, Microsoft unveiled the next Xbox - the third model, but confusingly named Xbox One. The big focus was TV, integrated Kinect, and all the other stuff we all expected to be forced down our throats. I think it took them 25 minutes to actually come to what should be the core of the story: gaming. Nothing groundbreaking in the gaming department, except for how Microsoft intends to handle the used games market and borrowing games from friends: pay up, buddy!
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/20/13 11:29 UTC
The day has finally come! Jolla has finally announced the launch device for its Sailfish operating system - and by god this is a looker. It's decidedly different from other phones out there, but it has good specifications and carries a relatively reasonably price tag - EUR 399, and it's up for pre-order today, shipping in the fourth quarter of this year.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/18/13 21:33 UTC
Why does Google get so much credit in the technology industry? Why, despite the company's many obvious failings, do many geeks and enthusiasts still hold a somewhat positive view on the all-knowing technology giant? A specific talk at Google I/O this week provides the answer.
Linked by David Adams on 05/16/13 4:23 UTC
OSNews is a sponsor of this year's O'Reilly OSCON in Portland, Oregon, USA. A lucky OSNews reader will win a free three-day pass, including two tutorials days. To win the pass, post a comment on this story saying something about Open Source Software or OSCON. We'll pick a winner at random next week. If you don't have an OSNews account, you may email us your entry. Part of the conference is the 9th annual Open Source Awards, and today the 16th is the deadline for nominations. If you'd like to nominate an outstanding open source contributor, do it here. Read on for more information about OSCON. Update: The 20% discount code for OSNews readers is "OSN."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/11/13 21:41 UTC
"Windows is indeed slower than other operating systems in many scenarios, and the gap is worsening." That's one way to start an insider explanation of why Windows' performance isn't up to snuff. Written by someone who actually contributes code to the Windows NT kernel, the comment on Hacker News, later deleted but reposted with permission on Marc Bevand's blog, paints a very dreary picture of the state of Windows development. The root issue? Think of how Linux is developed, and you'll know the answer.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/08/13 14:22 UTC
This is one of those news items that's fun to write, fun to read, fun to comment on, and where no one will be able to say anything unkind. It's all just one big ball of awesome fluffiness. TuneTracker, the BeOS radio automation software, has just released something very special: TuneTracker System 5, the first version designed entirely and specifically for Haiku. In fact, it actually includes Haiku in the software package. Better yet, TuneTracker also unveiled several system-in-a-box products - which have Haiku and TuneTracker pre-installed.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/02/13 15:28 UTC
Exactly twenty years ago, a document was published that played a huge role in establishing the web as we know it today. Twenty years later, and this simple and straightforward document is proof of an irrefutable fact: while closed technologies can change markets, open technologies can change the world.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/29/13 21:06 UTC
Oh multitasking. That staple of computing that got thrown out the window with many modern smartphones. We got some rudimentary thing in its place - but even as multitasking on phone and tablets improves, its user-visible side remains cumbersome. Windows 8 has a neat implementation, and now it's time Android follows in it footsteps.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/24/13 22:24 UTC
They're here! Whether that excites you or not remains to be seen, but the Galaxy S4, which will most likely become the best selling Android smartphone of the year by a huge margin, has been reviewed by all the major sites, and there's lots of interesting conclusions in there - although I think most of you will get the gist.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/18/13 11:21 UTC
Nokia has posted its quarterly results for the first quarter of 2013, and just like the quarters that came before, there's not a whole lot of good news in there. The rise in Lumia sales still can't even dream of making up for the sales drop in Symbian phones, and when broken down in versions, the sales figures for Windows Phone 8 Lumias in particular are very disappointing. In North America, Nokia is getting slaughtered.More Features »
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Member since:
2005-07-06
On several occasions I've seen and heard the argument that easy disabling (e.g. including a simple switch in the bios/whatever you want to call it) should be a no-go. Then for crying out loud, at least provide a jumper on the mobo in an accessible place (anywhere on desktop/server boards, and near the ram slots on laptops) where those who care enough, can disable it.
Going for abominations like this Fedora plan (where you can't use your own compiled kernel, modified drivers, etc.) should be the absolute no-go, and distro makers should not offer to voluntarily go with MS's lockout plan. Instead they should join the effort in full to lobby for including the option to switch off UEFI SB on every and each UEFI hardware.