Microsoft's Tony Mangefeste in a response to early adopters tried to calm down fears that Windows 8 might be used to shut out Linux or competing operating systems. After Red Hat engineer Matt Garrett worried that the UEFI firmware's secure boot feature could be used to exclude non-official operating systems, Sinofsky stepped in to clarify that it was part of the spec and not Microsoft's policy. The code is also an optional policy that, even when active, could still let someone install another OS without a flag preventing the new OS from running.
PC builders can both set which party has control over the security certificates used to greenlight an OS as well as letting customers load certifica... »read more

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