Microsoft’s move to alter its User Extensible Firmware Interface(UEFI) Secure Boot standard in Windows 10 that has many users of Linux and other operating systems worried, according to reports.
At the recent WinHEC Conference in China, Microsoft announced that Windows 10 will ship with support for the UEFI Secure Boot standard just as Windows 8 did. However, this time the Secure Boot off switch will be optional.
The UEFI Secure Boot was meant to replace the Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) firmware. The Secure Boot can support remote diagnostics and repair of computers, even without another operating system. When Secure Boot is on, the UEFI inspects the cryptographic signature of any program that it is ordered to load. If it doesn’t identify an unmodified Windows 10 downloader, it will not start the machine.
The concern among users of other operating systems is that original equipment manufacturers might opt to keep the UEFI Secure Booth on and not give people the option to turn it off.
If this happens, any non-Windows 10 OS will be shut off from booting in those machines.
The UEFI Secure Boot might not totally shut out Linux users. Ars Technical said there are some “collaborations” to provide Linux boot software with the “right signatures.”