Microsoft’s proposed use of Unfied Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) in Windows 8 could be used to block all other operating systems from Windows 8 systems. The Linux Foundation and partners have a better idea: Secure computers with UEFI and give users freedom of operating system choice.
In the Linux Foundation document, Making UEFI Secure Boot Work With Open Platforms (PDF Link), James Bottomley, CTO of Server Virtualization at Parallels and Linux Foundation Technical Advisory Board Chair Jonathan Corbet, Editor at LWN.net and fellow Linux Foundation Technical Advisory Board Member, after consulting with other Linux leaders, explain how “Linux and other open operating systems will be able to take advantage of secure boot if it is implemented properly in the hardware.”
At the same time, Red Hat and Canonical, Ubuntu’s parent company, have published UEFI Secure Boot Impact on Linux (PDF Link). This document presents a set of recommendations that will allow users the freedom to choose their software, while retaining the security features of UEFI Secure Boot, and complying with open source licenses used in distributions of Linux.”