It would appear that on Oct 21, James Knott did say:
Billie Walsh wrote:
I don't really know anything about it but rumor has it that Windows 8 ready machines have some kind of bios that is supposed to block loading anything that isn't Windows as a security measure. I mean, one never knows what damage loading something like Linux might do to your computer so they want to protect you.
James is right. but as I understand it UEFI isn't bios, It's replacing bios. And as much as I for one strongly dislike it. It does actually have a valid reason to exist. Even with the secure boot garbage. At least in the corporate world where the "owners" of the PC's want to protect their systems from their employees. And even Microsoft actually included a method to boot other OS. They simply took great care to design it in such a way as to make it difficult for Linux users. Especially for the little distros who don't have the resources to conform to the new trust model... Most of what I know about it was recently gleaned from a duckduckgo search BTW
That would bethe "secure boot" part UEFI. My ThinkPad has UEFI, but not secure boot, and it hasn't caused any problems. On x86 systems, it's supposed to be possible to bypass it, but ARM systems cannot. There is also a Linux work around that was recently announced.
The trouble is that while Microsoft does permit the OEMs who want to put the windows trademark on their new Win8 PC's to provide a way to turn Secure Boot off, they don't require them to include that feature. It seems that OpenSuSE is one of the leading distros in trying to find a way around this problem... http://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/17542.html http://www.pcworld.com/article/260734/suse_linux_outlines_its_plans_for_wind... https://www.suse.com/blogs/uefi-secure-boot-details/ But speaking for myself. In the event that I should buy another "NEW" PC someday, it will most certainly be one where the secure boot can, in fact, be disabled. {I envision tormenting the geek squad desk at Best Buy until they agree to show me how it's done on the specific model I'm buying.} Or better still I'd give preferential considerations to any machines where the manufacturer actually skipped qualifying for the MS logo sticker by shipping at least some models with the secure boot feature disabled by default... But I wouldn't hold my breath while trying to find one of those. -- | ^^^ ^^^ | <o> <o> | ^ JtWdyP | ___ <sigh> -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org