Page 1 of 1

MS's new weapon?

Posted: 10 Nov 2011, 22:54
by agreimann
Guys, I've noticed that "Secure Boot"/Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) has been a subject of interest as part of the new "Windows 8" release. I'm not sure who else has run Windows Developer Preview on their computers, but it seems to me that MS is focusing a new weapon, cleverly deguised as "Windows 8"--aimed straight at FOSS operating systems!

This weapon, however, apparently is cleverly wrapped in "supposed" reasons, as not to alarm the world.

Reasons I believe this:
- Windows To Go. A "Live USB" environment that boots Windows anywhere. (This may be one little key for figuring out UEFI, though.)
- Protogon. A new filesystem is now replacing NTFS, which OpenIndiana, Linux, and others thus far, can't decrypt. It'd cripple Linux support for Protogon partitions. Remember how they tried exFAT and NTFS Generation 3? The day's come that they're thinking again...
- UEFI. Stop Linux and other operating systems from booting, effectively crippling Linux and others and obsoleting them in the dust by limiting them to old hardware. Even if they do boot, deny them from dual-booting, because the finished copy of 8 should have it's boot info tied into UEFI.
- "Live" environment. Obsolete current operating systems by moving your stuff with you everywhere with an account with the Microsoft "Windows Live" service. Yes, that's the direction things are going, and yes, Canonical has Ubuntu One, but come on!

"Supposed" reasons for features:
- Windows To Go. Boot Windows everywhere for convenience or safety.
- Protogon. Search more inituitely across your whole system by having a dedicated index that is improved and faster.
- UEFI. Stop malware from taking over or overwriting the boot files for Windows--of which a study proved UEFI had little advantage over BIOS in this respect.
- "Live" environment. It is the direction that everyone is going. The media attributes the Windows DP head mentioning the experience should be consistent across all devices. Why should you have to move your settings and files? There's some truth to this argument, but not when it has one purpose in mind....

And the overall reason that I think all this is being aimed at open source: confusion. I believe that if the media + the large companies got the attention of the FSF and others off of the software, and into figuring out what they want, FOSS suddenly plays their game. Obviously, we all know that there will be people with their heads on straight trying to de-confuse what's going on.

In the words presented in the Macintosh presentation: "Was George Orwell right about 1984?" I hope this new plot fails! Go Porteus!

Re: MS's new weapon?

Posted: 11 Nov 2011, 01:52
by brokenman
I believe there may be some substance to your extrapolations. MS have been sending their grunts to the open source conventions for the last few years which raised my eyebrows a little. I don't think the UEFI will be too much of a hinderance, but all things on the table, it looks like they are definitely up to something.