4 ms·

I know that was true for Windows 8 approved PCs, but didn't they remove that requirement for Windows 10?

Santosh83 9y ago
And why exactly are Microsoft being allowed to dictate restrictions upon general purpose PCs manufactured by others? Why do other OS distributors need approval from Microsoft before their OS images can be used under Secure Boot, without the user having to install their own keys? We need to overcome these big usability hurdles, or PCs are going to become just glorified smartphones needing 'jailbreaks' before long. The writing is on the wall for those who can see it, IMO.
- cwyers 9y ago
  Microsoft dictates what a general purpose PC manufactured by others has to do to be compatible with Windows; vendors that don't care about being able to run Windows can refuse to abide with anything Microsoft says. (Apple doesn't meet Microsoft's standards, for instance.) Linux is an operating system designed to run on computers that meet Microsoft's standards. A Linux distribution could go the Apple route and define a different set of standards a computer has to meet to run that distro, so that only computers made to run that distro could run Linux. ChromeOS is a Linux that has done this. The commodity PC platform is basically a historical accident, where IBM used commodity off-the-shelf hardware, and licensed MS-DOS but neglected to get an exclusive license. So anyone that bought the right hardware and a license to MS-DOS could provide an IBM-compatible PC. Before the ascendance of the IBM compatible platform, you had manufacturers of general purpose PCs building incompatible machines. Now we have a market dominated by compatible machines. There's no ISO standard for general-purpose PCs that makes this happen, or any other independent standard. Windows Hardware Certification is the standard for commodity PCs. EDIT: To clarify, this is only true regarding x86. Linux on MIPS/POWER/etc. is conforming to some other standard, not one set by Microsoft.
  - revmoo 9y ago
    > Linux is an operating system designed to run on computers that meet Microsoft's standards. No, it isn't.
  - digi_owl 9y ago
    This ignores the one piece that was IBM proprietary, the BIOS, that they tried to defend strongly. But back then they didn't have software patents, and Compaq was able to prove that their BIOS was a clean room re-implementation. And from that point the cat was out of the bag. Never mind that IBM after that tried to go proprietary with the PS/2, and it bombed badly.

And why exactly are Microsoft being allowed to dictate restrictions upon general purpose PCs manufactured by others? Why do other OS distributors need approval from Microsoft before their OS images can be used under Secure Boot, without the user having to install their own keys? We need to overcome these big usability hurdles, or PCs are going to become just glorified smartphones needing 'jailbreaks' before long. The writing is on the wall for those who can see it, IMO.

cwyers 9y ago
Microsoft dictates what a general purpose PC manufactured by others has to do to be compatible with Windows; vendors that don't care about being able to run Windows can refuse to abide with anything Microsoft says. (Apple doesn't meet Microsoft's standards, for instance.) Linux is an operating system designed to run on computers that meet Microsoft's standards. A Linux distribution could go the Apple route and define a different set of standards a computer has to meet to run that distro, so that only computers made to run that distro could run Linux. ChromeOS is a Linux that has done this. The commodity PC platform is basically a historical accident, where IBM used commodity off-the-shelf hardware, and licensed MS-DOS but neglected to get an exclusive license. So anyone that bought the right hardware and a license to MS-DOS could provide an IBM-compatible PC. Before the ascendance of the IBM compatible platform, you had manufacturers of general purpose PCs building incompatible machines. Now we have a market dominated by compatible machines. There's no ISO standard for general-purpose PCs that makes this happen, or any other independent standard. Windows Hardware Certification is the standard for commodity PCs. EDIT: To clarify, this is only true regarding x86. Linux on MIPS/POWER/etc. is conforming to some other standard, not one set by Microsoft.
- revmoo 9y ago
  > Linux is an operating system designed to run on computers that meet Microsoft's standards. No, it isn't.
- digi_owl 9y ago
  This ignores the one piece that was IBM proprietary, the BIOS, that they tried to defend strongly. But back then they didn't have software patents, and Compaq was able to prove that their BIOS was a clean room re-implementation. And from that point the cat was out of the bag. Never mind that IBM after that tried to go proprietary with the PS/2, and it bombed badly.