win8 Microsoft to lock out other operating systems from Windows 8 ARM PCs &

[Dot Matrix]

That news article was crap.

The comments are even better.

[lalalawawawa]

:laugh:

Cry, baby, cry, cry all you want.

[cork1958]

All of the other devices you guys have listed are proprietary devices, their OS is supposed to be linked to them, PCs are supposed to be universal.

Yeah,

So much for it being a "Personal" Computer anymore!! I mean, doesn't PC stand for PERSONAL Computer, as in, it's mine and I can do what I want with it?

[Stoffel]

Yeah,

So much for it being a "Personal" Computer anymore!! I mean, doesn't PC stand for PERSONAL Computer, as in, it's mine and I can do what I want with it?

But why can Google and Apple call it a tablet and just put their OS on it, but when they put Windows on it it's called a PC all of a sudden?

[Dot Matrix]

Ed Bott breaks this down.

Back in September, the Linux community expressed dire fears that Microsoft was plotting to lock out Linux in new PCs sold with Windows 8. The reality has now emerged, in the form of a detailed document from Microsoft that outlines requirements for Windows 8 certification on hardware. That document proves those fears were completely unfounded.

Indeed, if you read the latest headlines, you need to pay careful attention to the Orwellian changes in wording to see just how absurd the current arguments are.

Here?s the headline from my colleague Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols? post on September 23, 2011:

Microsoft to stop Linux, older Windows, from running on Windows 8 PCs

And here?s the headline from his January 13, 2012 update:

Microsoft to lock out other operating systems from Windows 8 ARM PCs & devices

See how ?Windows 8 PCs? turned into ?Windows 8 ARM PCs and devices?? That?s a huge difference. For one thing, there?s no such thing as an ?ARM PC.? ARM-based devices will be tablets that run a subset of the full Windows 8 operating system. And they don?t exist yet.

Let?s dismiss the first one first. The new specifications make it very clear:

All versions of Windows 8 shall be UEFI-compatible ?

All client systems must support UEFI Secure boot ?

MANDATORY:

Enable/Disable Secure Boot.

On non-ARM systems, it is required to implement the ability to disable Secure Boot via firmware setup. A physically present user must be allowed to disable Secure Boot via firmware setup without possession of PKpriv [the private key that supports Secure Boot].

?Non-ARM systems? means the classic x86 PC design. Roughly 400 million of these devices will be sold this year, and probably an equivalent number will be sold in the first year that Windows 8 is available. Every single one of those PCs will have the ability to run older versions of Windows, Linux, or a new operating system you create yourself. To do so, you will simply have to flip a bit in the system?s setup screen.

If you disable Secure Boot on a Windows 8 ARM tablet, you have effectively bricked it. No other currently available operating systems, including any version of Windows, will run on it. No currently shipping version of Linux or Android will run on it.

READ MORE: http://www.zdnet.com...-continues/4343

[BajiRav]

No, because you are not buying a Windows 8 tablet in the first place. You're buying an ARM tablet that can run several operating systems, but that device happened to be certified for Windows 8. Certified for Windows means that the device is supposed to run fine (or more than) that with the Windows 8 system and can have a cute Certified-for-Microsoft badge, but, there is a hook in this certification: in order to be certified for Windows 8 the manufacturers have to lock down their ARM devices to prevent the install of other operating systems that would/could otherwise be perfectly acceptable. And that's where we have a problem.

If you really want to put Linux on a tablet with SecureBoot, all you need is a bootloader support and have its certificate installed in the UEFI. It's a job for Linux vendors to work with OEMs and not Microsoft.

[remixedcat]

what about vmware esxi/vsphere???? this can't be good.

[Dot Matrix]

what about vmware esxi/vsphere???? this can't be good.

I don't know if VMWare will run on ARM.

[ArialBlue]

Buying a W8 tablet to not run W8 seems ridiculously stupid.

I bet you will want a replacement when some commie-ware "as-is" Linux distribution that you install fries it.

Locking out trashy OS is the best financial, common sense decision one can come up with.

[remixedcat]

I don't know if VMWare will run on ARM.

vmware horizon mobile....