On Fri, Sep 23, 2011 at 10:54:31PM +1000, Russell Coker wrote:
If you ran a corporate IT department and had a set of Linux laptops then it would be handy to be able to lock them down to prevent them from being used for gaming, pr0n, etc. A BIOS that could be locked to a GPG key to only load a signed kernel and initrd could be a first stage towards a locked down system.
i havent seen any indication that the owner (i.e. purchaser) of the computer is going to be able to make use of this, only the manufacturer and Microsoft.
Like many technologies this can be used for good or evil.
the evil uses are the overt intent. there aren't even any theoretical good uses yet. seems to me that MS is jealous of the control and lock-in that Apple has over the devices they allow their customers to pay for and partially use. of course, one obvious difference is that Macs have always been a closed or mostly-closed platform. while PCs have always been open. BTW, what effect will this have on addon cards that have a ROM? disk controllers for example? will makers of PCI/PCIE cards have to get approval from MS and/or from every motherboard manufacturer for every revision of every product they make? craig -- craig sanders <cas@taz.net.au> BOFH excuse #178: short leg on process table