Bonum Certa Men Certa

When Microsoft Deletes Windows and GNU/Linux

Summary: The abusive monopolist continue to find new ways to marginalise GNU/Linux while making it look like an accident or 'for security'; meanwhile, however, sometimes it's Windows -- not GNU/Linux -- that stops working

We have written extensively about (U)EFI and what it means to GNU/Linux, warning about what's becoming a reality now (Microsoft "kills the bootloader"). This sounds like the Vista 8.1 bricking issue. To quote Steven Rosenberg, "So I figured I'd upgrade the Windows 8 portion of my Windows/Fedora dual-booting (and naturally EFI-running) system to the presumably shinier, newer Windows 8.1 with the offer of an upgrade via the Microsoft Store.



"Big fucking mistake."

Yes, well, it's a "big fucking mistake" to get a machine that's EFI-running, too. Microsoft works closely with Intel, which is in bed with the intelligence community, and that's not to mention the company's strong ties with the NSA and potential use of (U)EFI to remotely brick motherboards, as we correctly predicted. The whole proposition of (U)EFI is innately dangerous, just like proprietary software (a lot of GNU/Linux-running PCs have Skype installed, which gives Microsoft and the NSA control over those machines, too).

Anyway, back to Rosenberg's rant: "I go into Windows 8 and do the upgrade. It tells me at some point that "there will be several reboots."

"The first reboot was the last. Windows would no longer boot. (Luckily Fedora continued to boot during this whole nightmare.) When I tried to start Windows 8, I got a blue-screen error with the code 0xc000000f.

"I went into Recovery Mode via the BIOS.

"The automatic repair didn't work. Then I went to Advanced Options, then to the Windows command prompt, to start trying hacks."

So much for security, eh? Remotely-controlled machine bricking is as far as "security" goes. A lot of GNU/Linux users have experienced problems like the above, but in their case it was GNU/Linux that stopped working and Windows that got itself a monopoly.

Rosenberg concludes: "At this point, I just don't care anymore. I will leave Windows 8 as is and continue ignoring it and using Linux 100 percent of the time as I usually do, and I'm very, very close to wiping Windows 8 entirely and single-booting Linux on this drive.

"This is bush-league, user-abusing bullshit. Microsoft, you messed up. Windows 8.1 upgrade via Microsoft Store gets an "F."'

Recent Techrights' Posts

Richard Stallman (RMS) Talk in Ethereum Cypherpunk Congress Will be Remote
This past week RMS received lots of accolades online
Links 28/08/2025: Chatbots Distorting/Fabricating History and Also Driving Suicide
Links for the day
 
Slopwatch: Fake Articles About "Linux", Slop Images in VentureBeat, Linux Foundation Spam Made With LLM Slop and Slop Images
The only relief or upside - if any exists - is that the pace of slop was down a bit this week
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, August 28, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, August 28, 2025
Gemini Links 29/08/2025: Poems, Games, and Java 25 Performance
Links for the day
Links 28/08/2025: Greenland 'Interferences' by US and Skinnerboxes to Get Banned in Korean Schools
Links for the day
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.
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Resists Software Freedom, Even by Attacking Its Own
The OSI is compromised
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