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1. ✨Nora Tindall (tindall@cybre.space)'s status on Tuesday, 12-Jul-2022 15:02:30 UTC ✨Nora Tindall

   Microsoft has asked Lenovo to make it harder to boot Linux on their computers.

   obviously I know some really cool people who work at Microsoft but it's very funny to me that people have been harping on us FOSS types for not instantly forgiving them for 20 years of malice, and now we've got this. [1]

   when Microsoft is asking manufacturers to prevent people from booting other OSes and not communicating as to why, they are positioning themselves as the enemy. it's that simple. if they want to be trusted by Linux users, they need to earn that trust.

   we're about 2y away, by my estimation, from living in a bizarro world where x86 PCs are less open to free desktops than ARM Macs.

   1: https://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/60248.html

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   • ✨Nora Tindall (tindall@cybre.space)'s status on Tuesday, 12-Jul-2022 15:03:00 UTC ✨Nora Tindall

     in reply to

     • krolden

     @krolden people already complain that it is too many steps. tons of research shows that every additional click, even on the web, massively reduces how many people complete the task.

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   • krolden (krolden@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 12-Jul-2022 15:03:06 UTC krolden

     in reply to

     @tindall harder? You just have to enable third party boot keys. Those lenovo laptops even have an option to ship with fedora or Ubuntu.

     I dont see this making installing Linux any harder as many people who install Linux already disable secure boot.

   • Chris [list of cold emoji] (suetanvil@mastodon.technology)'s status on Tuesday, 12-Jul-2022 15:05:21 UTC Chris [list of cold emoji]

     in reply to

     @tindall

     MJG's observation that Microsoft has been much less effective at securing their boot process than the FOSS community makes a good argument for forcibly removing them from stewardship of this standard and giving it to a more neutral industry body. It may not fly in North America but I could see the EU requiring it.

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   • ✨Nora Tindall (tindall@cybre.space)'s status on Tuesday, 12-Jul-2022 15:05:30 UTC ✨Nora Tindall

     in reply to

     • Paul :verified: ,(v )°˃

     @ulPa illegal != doesn't happen. the us govt has essentially given up.

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   • Paul :verified: ,(v )°˃ (ulpa@nerdculture.de)'s status on Tuesday, 12-Jul-2022 15:05:31 UTC Paul :verified: ,(v )°˃

     in reply to

     @tindall shouldn't that be illegal by antitrust laws?

   • Be (be@floss.social)'s status on Tuesday, 12-Jul-2022 15:06:04 UTC Be

     in reply to

     • /dev/urandom (aka jan Lentan)
     • Lisp Witch

     @tindall @alexandria @devurandom To elaborate, they've disabled the key for that shim by default now. There's a switch in the UEFI settings to enable the shim's key, but it's off by default so you have to know it exists.

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   • Lisp Witch (alexandria@cybre.space)'s status on Tuesday, 12-Jul-2022 15:06:05 UTC Lisp Witch

     in reply to

     • /dev/urandom (aka jan Lentan)

     @devurandom @tindall I mean you already can't, right? Linux boots using a shim signed by Microsoft

   • ✨Nora Tindall (tindall@cybre.space)'s status on Tuesday, 12-Jul-2022 15:06:05 UTC ✨Nora Tindall

     in reply to

     • /dev/urandom (aka jan Lentan)
     • Lisp Witch

     @alexandria @devurandom on most computers you can enter your own keys yeah

   • /dev/urandom (aka jan Lentan) (devurandom@cybre.space)'s status on Tuesday, 12-Jul-2022 15:06:06 UTC /dev/urandom (aka jan Lentan)

     in reply to

     @tindall wait, do they actually want lenovo to make laptops where you can't enter setup mode and add your own keys in?

   • ✨Nora Tindall (tindall@cybre.space)'s status on Tuesday, 12-Jul-2022 15:06:23 UTC ✨Nora Tindall

     in reply to

     • /dev/urandom (aka jan Lentan)

     @devurandom right now they are shipping laptops where that is the default, yes.

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   • Nordern (nordern@chaos.social)'s status on Thursday, 14-Jul-2022 16:45:37 UTC Nordern

     in reply to

     @tindall It's less about forgiving them and more about that some "FOSS types" are very quick to yell a conspiracy behind everything.

     Crying wolf isn't a good thing if you want your voice to be heard when it counts.

     Like this one here. This is a very obvious attack and needs to be stomped out at its core. It was already completely unacceptable that Microsoft was given the keys to the castle to begin with with Secure Boot.

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   • Javier (javierg@mstdn.social)'s status on Thursday, 14-Jul-2022 16:47:05 UTC Javier

     in reply to

     @tindall I'm so tired of the "this is not 90s Microsoft". I have never seen any difference in attitude or goals! Maybe they're a bit less arrogantly aggressive, since they just aren't as powerful as they were.

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   • sirlan (sirlan_ff00ff@dragonscave.space)'s status on Thursday, 14-Jul-2022 16:47:44 UTC sirlan

     in reply to

     @tindall for the people saying it's about security

     how damn common is malware that attacks before boot and is almost impossible to detect/prevent in any other way, that the only option is to make sure nothing other than microsoft windows™ is allowed to run by default

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   • Walter :linux: :gnome: (wcasanova@floss.social)'s status on Thursday, 14-Jul-2022 16:48:13 UTC Walter :linux: :gnome:

     in reply to

     @tindall