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FSF Criticises Ubuntu For Dropping Grub 2 For Secure Boot

Posted by samzenpus on from the I-am-dissapoint dept.

sfcrazy writes "The Free Software Foundation (FSF) has published a whitepaper suggesting how free operating systems can deal with UEFI secure boot. In the whitepaper, the foundation has criticized the approach Canonical/Ubuntu has taken to deal with the problem. The paper reads: 'It is not too late to change. We urge Ubuntu and Canonical to reverse this decision, and we offer our help in working through any licensing concerns. We also hope that Ubuntu, like Fedora, will actively support users generating and using their own signing keys to run and share any versions of the software, and not require users to install a key from Canonical to get the full benefit of their operating system.'"

3 of 296 comments (clear)

  1. Re:people who use ubuntu are linux posers anyways by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    And my dick is bigger then your dick.

  2. The FSF by Osgeld · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Sure does like to dictate what people use, kinda funny that way

  3. Let's be honest: Nobody liked Grub 2 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    [Disclaimer: I’m always posting anonymously, since I consider the /. moderation system fundamentally broken.]

    Grub 2 is vastly over-engineered, and even though it is more complex, it’s more limited. (Example: The whole multi-boot mess.)
    For the sole purpose of making it "easier" on the Windows crowd that can't even be expected to edit a config file (or tie their shoes?). Which is a huge fallacy, since that's already way beyond the point of maximum efficiency, deep down in "so easy, it's less efficient” territory, where it's actually harder again if you have any ambitions or half a brain.
    And it results in a vicious cycle of dumbing down the thing and users adapting to it by becoming dumber, until it ends up being something like Clippy, MS Bob, or the iPad in a Idiocracy...

    Anyone who can handle a general-purpose computer, which I think anyone here can, has less hassle staying with Grub 1, and be done with it. (Or choosing something else, of course.)
    There is no point in changing a running system that does everything that's needed. And we definitely don’t need a script generating really stupid config files for us, since we got the working brain, and so can handle writing text that follows rules ourselves. :)

    Grub 2 is the same cancer that is killing Linux, that is Ubuntu Unity, Gnome 3, KDE 4, recent versions of Firefox, etc.