Re: [luv-talk] Lenovo caught pre-installing adware on laptops - Security - News - iTnews.com.au
On 4 May 2015, at 5:37 pm, Andrew McGlashan <andrew.mcglashan@affinityvision.com.au> wrote:
On 4/05/2015 8:52 AM, Davor Balder wrote:
The only way around this would be to install your own trustworthy OS of choice and treat your purchase as purchase of hardware only. Most (if not all) people on this list are already doing this
True, but the time of buying a Windows appliance is upon us now or very soon. Windows 10 will require UEFI with secure boot turned on and it may or may not allow secure boot to be turned off AND it may only have keys that work for Windows boxen. When that happens, you'll have an appliance that will run Windows and it won't run anything else.
Unfortunate, but true consequence of the stupidity that is presented by UEFI. However, I believe there will be some distributions that will work with UEFI (RedHat?, Ubuntu?). We may have reduced choice. I think distro needs to have some keys that will allow it to work with UEFI. I also read somewhere they (manufacturers) will have to allow installation of alternative OS’s. If this is the case, then UEFI will not have any point. At the very worst, you will (possibly) be able to buy only certain hardware that will allow UEFI to be turned off (assuming this is permitted by some and not allowed by others). Interesting times ahead… As a side note, I believe I have encountered UEFI on Lenovo hardware in the last few months and have been able to disable it with no problems. However, this may not be guaranteed in the future (despite reports I heard to the contrary).
A.
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On Mon, 4 May 2015 09:38:37 PM Davor Balder wrote:
I also read somewhere they (manufacturers) will have to allow installation of alternative OS’s. If this is the case, then UEFI will not have any point.
An ideal implementation of such things would allow the user to control which OS is permitted to boot.
At the very worst, you will (possibly) be able to buy only certain hardware that will allow UEFI to be turned off (assuming this is permitted by some and not allowed by others).
It's not merely a matter of buying only certain hardware. When buying second hand it's often difficult to determine specs accurately, this could lock Linux users out of many ebay auctions. It could also make things more difficult for organisations like ComputerBank because they wouldn't be able to just assume that every PC that boots can be made to run Linux. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/
"An ideal implementation of such things would allow the user to control which OS is permitted to boot." Exactly, things like secure boot are brilliant ideas so long as the user controls the keys. -- Sent from my GNU/Linux-Libre box. Run free. http://www.gnu.org/distros/free-distros.html Come Visit Free Software Australia - http://freesoftware.org.au/ jabjabs@fastmail.com.au On Mon, May 4, 2015, at 05:11, Russell Coker wrote:
On Mon, 4 May 2015 09:38:37 PM Davor Balder wrote:
I also read somewhere they (manufacturers) will have to allow installation of alternative OS’s. If this is the case, then UEFI will not have any point.
An ideal implementation of such things would allow the user to control which OS is permitted to boot.
At the very worst, you will (possibly) be able to buy only certain hardware that will allow UEFI to be turned off (assuming this is permitted by some and not allowed by others).
It's not merely a matter of buying only certain hardware. When buying second hand it's often difficult to determine specs accurately, this could lock Linux users out of many ebay auctions. It could also make things more difficult for organisations like ComputerBank because they wouldn't be able to just assume that every PC that boots can be made to run Linux.
-- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/ _______________________________________________ luv-main mailing list luv-main@luv.asn.au http://lists.luv.asn.au/listinfo/luv-main
Michael Verrenkamp writes:
Things like secure boot are brilliant ideas so long as the user controls the keys.
ITYM the keyring. Microsoft (& other vendors, maybe) control the signing keys. cf. "who controls the CA private keys" used for HTTPS.
On 5/05/2015 3:33 PM, Trent W. Buck wrote:
Michael Verrenkamp writes:
Things like secure boot are brilliant ideas so long as the user controls the keys.
ITYM
What is ITYM????? A.
ITYM = I Think You Mean (Google search) :-) Wen
participants (6)
-
Andrew McGlashan -
Davor Balder -
Michael Verrenkamp -
Russell Coker -
trentbuck＠gmail.com -
Wen Lin