| UEFI based computers, without secure boot, are already on the market. I've
got
at least one of those. I've been able to install Linux on it.
Somewhere on
the internet there's a huge rant about UEFI by one of the kernel
developers.
Apparently, even without secure boot, it's a *massive* pain in the
backside,
mainly because the implementations of it - yes, even the reference
implementation provided by Intel - are hopelessly buggy.
Most ARM based
computers these days use U-Boot as a bootloader. U-Boot is
open source and
generally works quite well. In principle there is nothing to
stop U-Boot from
being used to boot Windows 8 RT as well as Linux and
Android. But U-Boot isn't
universal, for example the Raspberry Pi doesn't use
it - but in that case it
doesn't matter, because the method of booting a
Raspberry Pi is quite well
documented and open. You can change OS on an R-
Pi (eg. Linux to RiscOS) in a
few seconds by swapping the SD card.
It is also possible to lock some types
of EEPROM - where the bootloader is
stored - so that they cannot be rewritten -
or require a passkey to be
unlocked for writing. This can be used for virus
protection, or it could be
used to prevent replacing a proprietary bootloader
with an open source
version. That's a hardware feature, not strictly a
software one, but it means
that some Windows 8 RT devices might really be
locked down to run Windows
only. (At least until someone cracks the EEPROM
unlock key.)
But yes, I'm anticipating that Windows 8 will fail in the
marketplace. ARM
based computers running Linux are already available at
surprisingly low prices
- even if you don't count Android as being Linux.
People talking about
previews of the Metro interface on desktop hardware are
singularly
unimpressed. Windows Phone 7 is already in the market with Metro,
and is
proving to be an albatross to even it's most successful vendor (Nokia),
who
has paired it with decent hardware and a formerly respected brand
name.
So it's entirely likely that there will be a fairly sharp divide
between ARM
devices that run Linux (or Android) and ARM devices that run
Windows. In a
properly functioning marketplace, one hopes that people will
tend to choose
the Linux ones. [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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