Microsoft’s Take on UEFI May Impede Linux (and that’s being polite)

Michael Reed — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 14:51:28 +0000

Recent revelations about the way that Windows 8 will make use of UEFI, the next generation PC BIOS, have caused speculation that this may cause problems for people wanting to install Linux. Potentially, this could cause the PC to switch away from its historic position as the standard bearer for open platforms.

The next version of Windows, Windows 8, may only run on a PC that features the UEFI BIOS. The snag is that it will probably make use of the “secure booting” feature of UEFI which prevents unsigned operating systems from booting on the hardware. The maker of the computer can install a certificate into the firmware on the motherboard, and consequently, only signed boot loaders (and possibly kernels and drivers and even applications) can then run on the machine. Software vendors such as Microsoft must send their code away to the manufacture of the computer to be signed so that it will run.

In other words, the PC will undergo a historic change, from the consummate open platform to a closed one. This also means that Linux wont boot on future PCs unless the motherboard manufacturer takes the time to certify each version of the boot loader and possibly each distro or even every kernel. It also seems that compliance with this system may be incompatible with licenses such as GPL 3.

To digress for a moment, it’s worth considering a software environment that may voluntarily go down this path, Mac OS X, as its users could be willing to accept a change in the balance between freedom for security. It’s quite possible that a future version of Mac OS will only allow software installation via the app store, and furthermore, it might become impossible to run a binary that has not been signed and approved by Apple itself. Apple itself would probably not be too bothered that its hardware would be inaccessible to other operating systems.

By contrast, Linux is a broad church. Part of what makes Linux so great is that you can do anything you like with it. You can install it where you like and modify it so that it meets your needs. What we’re facing is a potential future in which ex-corporate PCs, for example, may well be tied to a specific version of Windows and absolutely nothing else will run.

Unsurprisingly, Microsoft employees have attempted to play down the undesirable ramifications of what may happen. In a post entitled “Protecting the pre-OS environment with UEFI”, Microsoft blogger Steven Sinofsky says:

“The most important thing to understand is that we are introducing capabilities that provide a no-compromise approach to security to customers that seek this out while at the same time full and complete control over the PC continues to be available.”

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