The 12.10 release is the first version
of Ubuntu that supports Secure Boot out of the box. In what is largely
an accident of release timing, from what I can tell (and please correct
me if I'm wrong), this actually makes Ubuntu 12.10 the first general
release of any OS to support Secure Boot. (Windows 8 of course is also
now available; and I'm sure Matthew Garrett, who has been a welcome
collaborator throughout this process, has everything in good order for the
upcoming Fedora 18 release.)
That's certainly something of a bittersweet achievement. I'm proud of
the work we've done to ensure Ubuntu will continue to work out of the
box on the consumer hardware of the future; in spite of the predictable
accusations on the blogowebs that we've sold out, I sleep well at night
knowing that this was the pragmatic decision to make, maximizing users'
freedom to use their hardware. All the same, I worry about what the
landscape is going to look like in a few years' time. The Ubuntu
first-stage EFI bootloader is signed by Microsoft, but the key that is used
for signing is one that's recommended by Microsoft, not one that's required
by the Windows 8 certification requirements. Will all hardware include this
key in practice? The Windows 8 requirements .. cntd
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