Microsoft’s brand new version of its flagship product,
the Windows operating system, has pitted it once again against Linux
users who have had a longstanding battle with the giant. The Linux
community has been particularly offended by the operating system’s
Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI), or popularly known as
Secure Boot.
The GNU Linux community’s fundamental
objection to the feature is that it amounts to collusion between
Microsoft and hardware manufacturers to lock users, depriving them of
the freedom to install other operating systems in a Windows environment.
They were later mollified by Microsoft’s clarifications that there will
be a ‘Secure Boot-disable’ option on PC’s shipping with Windows 8.
Although this option would have allowed installation of multiple
operating systems, it is still arduous on Secure Boot machines.
Secure
Boot is deemed as an attempt by Microsoft to tighten its losing grip in
the desktop space and grab onto a substantial user base in the tablet
space. With the release of Windows 8 and Microsoft’s tablet computer
Surface, there is some clarity about the implications of Secure Boot.
As
the Redmond giant provides an option for multi boot on Intel or AMD
processor-based computers (seen with Windows 8), and no such option for
ARM-based computers, the restriction might play out differently in the
tablet market (manifested in Microsoft Surface).
It
would create unhealthy competition in the long run, if
Microsoft-certified ARM devices make it big in the tablet computer
segment, and eliminate other operating systems from the race with a
hardware lock in the form of Secure Boot.
If you have
a personal computer, or a laptop that you purchased a couple of years
ago, the first wake-up screen would most likely be a dull visual with a
pixelated logo and text in a monotonous font with keyboard access to
only a few obscure device options. This wake-up system software, that
has existed from the first IBM PC, is mostly the only piece of computer
ware that has never seen any major upgrades.
The
Basic Input/Output System (or commonly known as the BIOS) is the
firmware that initiates the device wake-up, before the operating system
can be loaded.
With UEFI, this interface between the
device firmware and the operating system will make the interface
advanced, firstly, and more importantly, prevent malicious software that
attack the BIOS (rootkits) from hampering the functioning of the
operating system. The initiative of Intel and now the consortium UEFI is
trying to make the boot process of computers more secure.
Secure or restricted?
Boot
restrictions aren’t new in the industry. All Apple products come with
restricted boot. Tablets and phones running Android too do not allow
multi boot. With the Microsoft version of UEFI Secure Boot, it has
joined the league of restricted boot operating systems. If Microsoft is
not alone, why is it being targeted?
A blog post on
Free Software Foundation website reads, “When done correctly, Secure
Boot is designed to protect against malware by preventing computers from
loading unauthorised binary programs when booting.” In the case of the
Microsoft implementation, it hasn’t been done correctly. Making the
apprehensions of Free Software crowd come true, Microsoft has now made
it mandatory for ARM-based devices to have “Secure Boot” on, without an
option to disable it. This means ARM-based devices certified for Windows
do not have the option of booting into another operating system (unless
the operating system in question is also certified by Microsoft).
Impact on market
While
Free Software community and technologists who want multi boot are
agitated with this ARM lock by Microsoft, from a market point of view,
it does not seem like a threat, at least as yet.
Microsoft
is not imposing the Secure Boot restriction in the desktop space, which
is almost entirely ruled by Intel or AMD machines running Microsoft
Windows. If Microsoft had imposed Secure Boot on desktop platforms, they
might have faced a second antitrust action, because they are still the
monopoly in personal computer operating systems.