Long before Windows 8 ships, PC makers are already implementing new hardware and firmware on upcoming batches of computers so when Windows 8 is ready for the mass, these newer computers will be ready to use Windows 8. There is a new feature that PC makers could implement which worries open source communities very much, and this feature known as Secure Boot. Microsoft recommends Secure Boot so hackers won’t be able to install rootkits on systems with Secure Boot enabled easily. This very same feature can also prevent users from installing unsigned operating systems such as Ubuntu. Linux communities are worrying how Secure Boot might be too hard to be disabled, and users won’t be able to install various Linux operating systems alongside with Windows 8 easily (i.e., dual boot). Some users might prefer to install Linux operating systems such as Ubuntu over Windows 8, and without an easy way to disable Secure Boot users won’t be able to do such thing.
Personally, I think Secure Boot is a very good idea. If it’s true that Secure Boot can prevent hackers to insert rootkits between the firmware and the signed operating systems, then it’s more power to users. Still, I have to agree with folks who are concerning of the possibility that Secure Boot might be too hard to be disabled. Let hope they will come to term and make sure that all new computers to be shipped with Secure Boot will have an option somewhere in the BIOS to allow easy disabling of Secure Boot. I know I will not be happy if I can’t run Linux operating systems alongside with Windows 8 through a method known as dual boot. Of course, I can always use virtualization to run Linux operating systems within Windows 8, but virtualization is always going to be a lot slower and uglier than dual boot — virtualization can’t allow the virtual machines to use full capacity in term of power of hardware.
Hackintosh users should worry too!
You can read more about Secure Boot through these sources: http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2011/10/the-right-to-dual-boot-linux-groups-plead-case-prior-to-windows-8-launch.ars?comments=1#comments-bar, http://blog.canonical.com/2011/10/28/white-paper-secure-boot-impact-on-linux/