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One example: Secure Boot (a.k.a. Restricted Boot). Personally, I'd love to have a screamin' Arch Linux install running Gnome Shell on top of the latest Microsof

One example: Secure Boot (a.k.a. Restricted Boot). Personally, I'd love to have a screamin' Arch Linux install running Gnome Shell on top of the latest Microsoft Surface hardware. But I can't do that, can I? Why not? The simple answer is because Microsoft disallows you from modifying hardware that you own. This is a very real power. I personally do not have the capability to produce my own hardware. The more complicated answer is that the big guns (Microsoft, Google, Apple, etc) have manipulated the government into allowing them these powers. So now we don't just have a technological problem, but a social problem. When we have an entire society of people running to the store asking them to put the glossy digital handcuffs on them, we encourage that kind of behavior. We make it economically viable for a corporation to oppress a large number of people. Circling back to my original point, this makes it difficult or impossible for someone to hack on a new hardware platform that's been locked down. Imagine if there were a ban on the color green. Artists would be completely deprived of a large part of their pallette, and their art would suffer for it. Tivoized hardware hurts hackers in exactly the same way. This is the first example that came to mind, there are definitely plenty of others. Basically it boils down to societal problems that manifest themselves as technology.

wmgries 13y ago
Why can't you just disable Secure Boot from the UEFI? http://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-us/support/warranty-service-and-recovery/how-to-use-the-bios-uefi http://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-us/support/warranty-serv...
- bananacurve 13y ago
  Because then you can't complain about what a horrible world it is with Google and Apple "oppressing" customers. Some people can only complain.
- forgottenpass 13y ago
  Because the link you provided is for Surface PRO, and specific to the x86 offering. From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_8#Secure_boot http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_8#Secure_boot Microsoft's certification requirements eventually revealed that UEFI firmware on x86 systems must allow users to re-configure or turn off secure boot, but that this must not be possible on ARM-based systems (Windows RT).
seabrookmx 13y ago
> Personally, I'd love to have a screamin' Arch Linux install running Gnome Shell on top of the latest Microsoft Surface hardware. But I can't do that, can I? Why not? Actually, you can. Here is a link for installing vanilla Ubuntu: http://www.geek.com/microsoft/how-to-install-ubuntu-on-the-surface-pro-1539262/ http://www.geek.com/microsoft/how-to-install-ubuntu-on-the-s... This same process will work fine for Arch because it simply disables the secure boot. The only issue I could see is drivers, but the article mentions the only one they had to worry about was WiFi. At least it's a Marvell chip and not a Broadcom.

wmgries 13y ago

Why can't you just disable Secure Boot from the UEFI? http://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-us/support/warranty-service-and-recovery/how-to-use-the-bios-uefi http://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-us/support/warranty-serv...

bananacurve 13y ago
Because then you can't complain about what a horrible world it is with Google and Apple "oppressing" customers. Some people can only complain.
forgottenpass 13y ago
Because the link you provided is for Surface PRO, and specific to the x86 offering. From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_8#Secure_boot http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_8#Secure_boot Microsoft's certification requirements eventually revealed that UEFI firmware on x86 systems must allow users to re-configure or turn off secure boot, but that this must not be possible on ARM-based systems (Windows RT).

seabrookmx 13y ago

> Personally, I'd love to have a screamin' Arch Linux install running Gnome Shell on top of the latest Microsoft Surface hardware. But I can't do that, can I? Why not? Actually, you can. Here is a link for installing vanilla Ubuntu: http://www.geek.com/microsoft/how-to-install-ubuntu-on-the-surface-pro-1539262/ http://www.geek.com/microsoft/how-to-install-ubuntu-on-the-s... This same process will work fine for Arch because it simply disables the secure boot. The only issue I could see is drivers, but the article mentions the only one they had to worry about was WiFi. At least it's a Marvell chip and not a Broadcom.