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FSF Criticises Ubuntu For Dropping Grub 2 For Secure Boot
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.'"
... for someone to hack the secure boot BIOS and provide an easy way for users to reflash theirs from Windows or whatever OS is preinstalled on the machine when bought new. No doubt this will prevent windows being reinstalled but unless you want a dual boot machine I doubt this matters much.
On a related note, how will this affect linux being booted from within windows (if anyone still uses that approach)?
not as much, but still (for planning to use the MS key). It's a very bad position we (Free Software) are in with Restricted/Secure boot. I think it's time the Linux friendly vendors really get behind CoreBoot [http://www.coreboot.org/Welcome_to_coreboot] and let us be truly independent.
As it is setup right now:
Binaries can only be signed with one key. If you use Microsoft's key, you can't use your own.
Not all vendors may support letting users add their own keys. (and even if they do it certainly complicates a fresh install).
ARM will be completely locked down if vendors want MS to run on it.
If you use the Microsoft key, they can revoke your access (they likely need cause, but still)
Ubuntu/Canonical has been the worst type of Karma whores since the beginning. They built a following by pimping the philosophy of freedom, only to abandon these ideals once the foundation was set. They have enouraged people to accept non-free video and wireless drivers, while companies like RedHat have tried to work with Vendors and educate folks about why this is a bad thing. Now with their app store with non-free projects; they've even undone this feat with kneeling towards Redmond (secureboot). I know not all Linux users care about freedom, but it is sad how even prominent linux users feel like they've accomplished something by getting their local school or whatever to use Ubuntu. People may complain about the free software philosophy all they want, but soon if Ubuntu continues, its going to be a much lesser degree of the early iterations of Windows with lots of propreitary-ness with bits and pieces of freedom (Windows started out using some BSD code). tl:dr Shuttleworth and Canonical are hypocrites and karmawhores.
Linux has gone mainstream... Just not on the desktop. Where is remains a distant 3rd behind Windows and OS/X.
With Android, Linux is quite popular with mobile. Linux is also strong on the server side too.
Linux never made it to the desktop, because there were too many drivers to support. When you luck out and get a System that is well supported by Linux... Linux rocked on that system. However if you try to put Linux on a poorly supported system, it usually sucked, and felt like a cheap OS.
If Microsoft make "Windows 9" a Linux Distribution with a Windows themed UI. It would probably be just like Vista, many people complaining about hardware compatibility, systems crashing all the time (due to improper drivers)
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Intel knows where they can make money from GNU/Linux: servers. That is not the target of this restricted boot system, and even if these restrictions come to servers, nobody will complain -- professional IT workers can put a $99 signing key purchase on their budget and continue to deploy whatever they want. Desktop GNU/Linux is not going to make Intel all that much money, and they know it -- Windows and Mac OS X are where all the desktop money is.
Intel and everyone else knows that restricted boot environments for personal computers (desktops and laptops) will be hugely profitable. Entertainment companies love it -- they can deploy a new kind of DRM that won't be defeated for years (see: PS3). Software companies love it, because they can stop people from applying cracks to evade DRM. ISPs love it because they can better lock-down their networks if they can control the computers that can be connected to those networks. The potential for money-making deals is HUGE, and Intel knows that when their chips are the center of these profitable systems, they make lots of money.
At the end of the day, Intel could not care less about hackers or computing freedom; they exist to make money, and there is no money to be made in allowing desktop and laptop users to have freedom.
Palm trees and 8
No, they're concerned that Ubuntu is giving up a GPL bootloader because they're choosing to adopt Microsoft's secure-boot solution, which effectively puts all such systems under Microsoft's control and makes it infinitely harder for "unapproved" software to run on the systems (which, if Microsoft's attitude is any indication, would include virtually all Free Software.)
So my computer belongs to Microsoft? Dell? Asus?
Perhaps you missed the bit where ALL systems with the Windows 8 logo were going to be forced into this locked state by default. It's not just a corporate security feature, it's being rammed down ALL of our throats.
You don't have to rely on Canonical unless you want to use their product, which is essentially what choosing software is, you use someone's software (maybe your own) over someone else's because of the choices they made.
Sure, that's the way things work right now. When UEFI restrictions come into play, things start to work differently. I can choose not to use Ubuntu and Fedora, and then what? I get stuck jumping through hoops just to install anything else -- and while I have the technical expertise and patience needed to do so, it is still annoying, and for some people it is either too annoying or too difficult to do.
That is the choice this situation forces you into: either you accept the code written by Fedora or Ubuntu, or you have to work hard to get something else up and running / pay for the right to do so. You are not able to simply reject those distros whose choices you disagree with; you must decide if those accepting those choices would be as bad as trying to get something else to work. A few months ago, I stopped using Fedora because of a disagreement I had with their choices (completely unrelated to the boot process); now I have to reevaluate that, because getting the distros I like to run on the next laptop I buy might require more of a time commitment than I can make.
I honestly don't understand how you have a problem with the concept of distros deciding to do certain things certain ways? Did you write your own package manager and kernel? In which case why are you using Ubuntu anyway? Why are you even using Linux, they've made all sorts of choices for you.
I am free to accept or reject the choices that other people made. I can always fork a project if I do not like the direction it is taking. Except, of course, if I need a digital signature from the project in order to run my fork on my own computer / if I have to get some company's permission (i.e. by paying a fee).
It is not about other people making decisions; it is about my freedom to accept those decisions. Maybe I like everything in Ubuntu, except for the bootloader -- maybe I really want to run grub2. Now I am stuck jumping through all sorts of hoops to get that to work -- either buying a key and agreeing to contracts, or putting the system in custom mode and instructing anyone who wants to use my code to do the same. Forking a distro in this model sounds like a giant pain, with extra hurdles and hoops that just push people to use the handful of distros that can pay to play.
Palm trees and 8
My initial response was : "who cares, as long as it's fun" .
And Linux is fun .