Bonum Certa Men Certa

Debian Should Consider Adding Weight to Antitrust Complaint Over Microsoft's Restricted Boot Tactics, Wheezy Cannot Boot on New Hardware

The universal operating system should help hold Microsoft accountable for anticompetitive practices

Debian on a laptop



Summary: With UEFI cracked as a security measure, all that is left can be deemed an impediment to GNU/Linux booting; hence, Debian GNU/Linux (leading among the free operating systems) should be used as evidence against Microsoft in an antitrust case

Microsoft cannot quite market the limitations of UEFI, notably restricted boot. Truth be told, boot-time malware is not the real threat but mostly a conceptual one (with proofs of concept put out there by security researchers), and moreover UEFI is easy for malicious entities to bypass [1, 2], as proven before (Torvalds, clearly not a fan of all this, saw it coming). Just like DRM, it hurts legitimate users and developers the most. No wonder there is an antitrust complaint over it,



"Truth be told, boot-time malware is not the real threat but mostly a conceptual one...""A critical vulnerability in Internet Explorer 8 is being exploited in the wild and full information about how to make use of the vulnerability is now in widespread circulation. The recent attack on a sub-site of the US Department of Labor has revealed the attackers were in fact using a new exploit for a 0-day vulnerability which only affects Internet Explorer 8," says this report. So why does Microsoft obsess over boot-time?

UEFI addresses an issue which hardly exists, it is a solution in search of a problem. A highly-anticipated Debian version was released the other day and it is not compatible with Microsoft's latest hardware restrictions, says Sam Varghese. To quote:

The Debian GNU/Linux project released version 7.0 of its well-known Linux distribution on May 4, two years and three months after the last version came out.


Debian backs the FSF on this matter, so it can hopefully add its support to the antitrust complaint too. ⬆

NB: I am a Debian GNU/Linux user. This distribution recently got some endorsements from the FSF, and vice versa. Its policies under the latest leadership are commendable.

Recent Techrights' Posts

81% Voted in Favour of EPO Strikes Until End of This Year
Who's in the line of succession at EPO?
EPO Strikes Will Carry on Until End of This Year (as We Predicted), Will Likely Continue Next Year/s
Do we still have media in Europe?
Today The Register MS Published "SPONSORED POST" Paid for by the Communist Party of China, It Mentions "AI" 19 Times
The Register MS is a marketing company
 
Links 20/10/2026: Facebook Scraping and Plagiarising News Sites, Copyright Act Turns 50
Links for the day
Microsoft's XBox Leadership and Strategy is Slop
XBox sales are already worst in the entire history of XBox
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, October 19, 2026
IRC logs for Monday, October 19, 2026
Gemini Links 20/10/2026: Old Movies, Bandera Hike, and Mongolian
Links for the day
Techrights Search One Year Later
This year, as we turn 20 in just over 2 weeks, we'll have more surprises and enhancements
'Cocaine King' Campinos Doesn't Have Sufficient Votes to Carry On Unchallenged, But He Has 2 More Months to Bribe Voters With 'Cooperation Money'
In any democratic, functioning institution they would not even ask if he can continue another term; he would be summarily sacked and investigated over the corruption, the cocaine, the racism and so on
Media 'Blackout' About Microsoft-Danfoss Connection After Almost 1,000 Supermarkets in France Get Cracked, Huge Amount of Food Destroyed
someone deployed malware to fridges
In Late October 2025 Spouse of Matthew Garrett Said He Had Them Raped and Broke Legs of Puppies, This Week Says He "Doesn’t Know How to Use Computers or Power Tools" (He Studied Genetics, Not Computers)
Harvey Weinstein did the same
Microsoft is Paying Many Workers to Leave the Company This Year, Just Don't Call it "Layoffs"
in some cases Microsoft pays people to leave while calling it "voluntary"
Gemini Links 19/10/2026: Orchids, Reducing GAFAM Reliance, and Deploying on OpenBSD
Links for the day
Links 19/10/2026: Intense Protests in France and "Zelenskyy Says Russia Seeking Blackout In Ukraine"
Links for the day
Intercontinental Brigading - Part VIII - How We Convinced British Police That the Americans Were Just Manipulating and Tricking Them at the Expense of British Taxpayers
Their job is to protect communities, not the feelings of Americans who threaten violence
IBM CEO Boasts to the Media About "AI" Momentum While Sacking His Workers Who Worked On It
Recently, IBM took a bailout and got rid of many workers
Corrupt Media Benefits Corrupt Officials (the Case of IBM)
IBM’s Pre-Earnings Publicity Blitz
Links 19/10/2026: "Investors Disturbed by Anthropic's Financial Data" and "The "Dead Internet" Is Here" (Slop and Bots Running on Huge Debt)
Links for the day
Gemini Links 19/10/2026: ICEYE/SAR, Smol Servers, and Starting an Open Access Journal
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, October 18, 2026
IRC logs for Sunday, October 18, 2026
Gemini Links 18/10/2026: Hobbies, RAM Prices, and Avoiding GAFAM
Links for the day
Intercontinental Brigading - Part VII - Weekend Abuse Reported to British Police (Rogue Actors Take No Breaks)
Some time in the next few days I'll share an elaborate report
Gemini Links 18/10/2026: Hospitals, Literature, Fixed IP Addresses, and Sunday Types
Links for the day
Links 18/10/2026: Brazil Reduces Deforestation, Some 4-5 Gray's Inn Square Scandals in Insolvency Petition of Reform UK
Links for the day
UbuntuBuzz is LLM Slop
Tragic
"Assisted by NSA" and "It's Just a Tool" (So Fine!)
Free software is meant to be produced by people who value and pursue Software Freedom
Slop is "just a hobby, won't be big and professional like GNU."
What Torvalds says about "hey hi" ("AI") does not prove he is in charge
Gemini Links 18/10/2026: Movies, Greenland, and Detectors of Slop Plagiarism
Links for the day
Links 18/10/2026: TikTok Censors Criticism of MElon, "Trump’s Latest Attempt to Be the King", and "Big Tech Oligarchs Have a Terrible Plan for Humanity"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, October 17, 2026
IRC logs for Saturday, October 17, 2026