Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft's UEFI Restricted Boot Delays GNU/Linux Releases, Causes Many Issues for Windows 'Refugees'

Dionaea



Summary: More reasons to treat UEFI restriction tricks from Microsoft as an antitrust violation and some new delays, bad experiences, and consistent rants

TO KICK OFF with a personal story, today I received a call from a loved one whose Windows computer had slowed down to the point of being useless. This is typical and it requites a 'technician' to routinely come and 'fix' it by reinstalling Windows. Next week that person will move to Linux, but not on the same hardware. I will purchase brand new hardware. The matter of fact is, dodging UEFI is becoming more difficult because of Microsoft's legal traps. This is an antitrust-type abuse,



"This is not the first time we see these restrictions interfering with release cycles."It is being reported that GNU/Linux development is being impeded due to UEFI, even where collaboration with Microsoft exists. Michael Larabel writes: "The Fedora 19 Alpha has been delayed by one week, thus pushing back all other milestones for this next version of Fedora Linux. The Fedora 19 Alpha delay is coming due to unresolved UEFI bugs blocking the release."

UEFI Restricted Boot has already been flagged as an antitrust issue. "To do this thing right, the EU should also include that users who overwrite that other OS before or after accepting the EULA should be given a full refund of the retail price of that other OS," Robert Pogson wrote.

This is not the first time we see these restrictions interfering with release cycles. A while back we saw Ubuntu releases whose purpose is to adjust for Microsoft's alleged UEFI violations alone. This is another company, Canonical, suffering from playing along with Microsoft.

Here is another rant about it and the original which states:

Today at Go/No-Go meeting it was decided to slip Fedora 19 Alpha release by one week due to unresolved UEFI bugs, see the blocker tracking app [1]. Otherwise we think we have pretty solid foundation for Alpha, please help us to identify the real impact of the UEFI issues. More details in meeting minutes [2].


Incidentally, Fabián Rodríguez, a rather prolific Free software proponent, wrote today:



I knew the time would come when I would meet someone that had #Windows 8 and they wanted to keep it either as dual-boot or as I suggest, virtualize it, to ease the transition into GNU/Linux. It doesn't seem to be possible anymore.

My current advocacy focus are #Trisquel (with legacy BIOS + secure boot disabled) and #Debian. I use the FSF links and resources to inform about the problems with secure boot and Windows 8 and so far few people decided to keep Windows 8 - this means not using GNU/Linux at all since I don't know yet how to keep #Windows 8 safely.

Debian latest installers support UEFI provided secure boot is disabled, but there is a bug that prevents easy dual-boot: http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=679817

This also affects #Ubuntu (and therefore, Trisquel): https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub2/+bug/1024383

Virtualizing would require either using VMWare (free as in beer only) VM converter, which takes longer and I haven't tested w/Windows 8, or re-installing from OEM media which can't be obtained it seems: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_8-windows_install/a-clean-install-of-windows-8-oem-media-download/1b1e2517-5658-450d-943e-7e81f902adec

I hate telling people "sorry, next" but I'd like to focus advocacy where it matters - not on having free software coexisting with Windows 8, specially when people don't depend on it too heavily (yet) since it's relatively recent.

The easiest is to simply wipe everything related to Windows 8 but so far I had been able to offer a smoother transition w/o learning a whole lot more.

What to do now?


Help the antitrust complaint? The above is no accident, Microsoft must have foreseen it with glee.

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

Links 28/08/2025: Chatbots Distorting/Fabricating History and Also Driving Suicide
Links for the day
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Resists Software Freedom, Even by Attacking Its Own
The OSI is compromised
 
Richard Stallman (RMS) Talk in Ethereum Cypherpunk Congress Will be Remote
This past week RMS received lots of accolades online
The Register MS (Run by Microsoft Operatives): Free Software is Putin, Hence Evil and Dangerous
The current editor in chief is an American Microsofter, the previous one went to work for Google (US)
Gemini Links 28/08/2025: Back in Japan and Why "Hacker News" Sucks
Links for the day
A Much-Needed Wake-up Call to Users of Wordpress.com, Blogspot, Substack and All Those Other Outsourced (and Centralised) Platforms
There are several lessons in there
The UEFI 9/11 - Part II - Campaign of Censorship and Defamation Against Critics
In dictatorships, humour serves an important role. It's tragic.
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, August 27, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, August 27, 2025
Slopwatch: linuxsecurity.com, Slopfarms in Google News, and More
Some readers of ours end up sending us links that are from slopfarms, not realising those are slopfarms
Gemini Links 27/08/2025: Katrina Memories and Google Versus Software Freedom
Links for the day
Links 27/08/2025: Police Against Media Freedom in the UK, Energy-Hungry Countries Targeted by China
Links for the day
Microsoft Windows Fell to All-Time Lows in Egypt This Summer, Vista 11 Adoption Decreases While GNU/Linux Increases
Vista 11 is going down rather than up
Links 27/08/2025: Microsoft Demoralises Staff With Slop Demands, Leaving Mastodon Explained
Links for the day
12 Hours Ago The Register MS Published a Fake (Paid-for) Article, But This One for a Change Did Not Promote a Ponzi Scheme
There are also Free software alternatives, but they don't pay The Register MS for "synthetic" so-called 'journalism'
More People Need to Call Out and Put a Stop to Serial Sloppers
Unless slopfarms are stopped, people will read and share Microsoft propaganda made by chatbots
Gemini Links 27/08/2025: Headphones and Tartarus
Links for the day
Morale at Microsoft is Terrible (Proprietary Plagiarism Machines Have No Future, LLM Slop is a Bubble)
The slop sceptics/critics are going to have lots of "told you so" moments
GNOME "governance issues, staff reduction, etc." amidst Albanian whistleblowing and women trafficking
Notice the connection to Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) and GNOME
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, August 26, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, August 26, 2025
Richard Stallman (RMS) Was Right About "Sideloading" in 1996
We now have computers that treat booting GNU/Linux like an act of "Sideloading"
Panama: Windows Down From 97% "Market Share" to Less Than 30%
In 2009, Windows was measured at 97.24% (compared to 62.32% right now or less than 30% if one also counts Android)
The UEFI 9/11 - Part I - Introduction to Impending Catastrophe (Microsoft Preventing People From Booting Non-Windows Systems)
eight-part series
Why Techrights is Slow Today (Bot Floods)
We don't know if those bots are connected to LLMs (we have not checked), but that is a possibility
Slopwatch: DDoS Slop, LinuxBSDos.com Spam, and Slopfarms in Google News, Including webpronews.com
Among the news we also found fakes, albeit not so much today
Links 26/08/2025: "Ballooning Debt" in France and "Transnational Repression in the UK"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 26/08/2025: Listening to Alcest and Google Doing Evil (Users Installing Software is "Sideloading" and Prohibited)
Links for the day
Links 26/08/2025: DNS Tampering and TikTok Layoffs
Links for the day
Microsoft's Windows "Market Share" Overestimated
Microsoft's income sources are shrinking
We Shall See...
My wife and I are hardly the first victims of Brett Wilson LLP
This New Determination on a Case Echoes the Modus Operandi of Microsoft's Serial Strangler vs Techrights (Its Online Decision/Judgment Says Truth and Public Interest Defend the Publisher)
Noel Anthony Clarke hopefully has enough money left to pay his victims, which include the publishers
Going Offline
There was life before the Net
The Register MS Has Apparently Shut Down Its Office
It is basically a fake address on the face of it
There Are Also Expectations of IBM Layoffs Very Soon With "Narrative Control."
Some of them mention Red Hat and how IBM failed to achieve anything substantial with that acquisition
After at Least Two Rounds of Mass Layoffs in August Microsoft Said to Have "September Layoff Confirmed - Performance Based"
Those "M5 level meetings" sound plausible
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, August 25, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, August 25, 2025