Theo de Raadt slams Red Hat, Canonical over 'secure' boot
OpenBSD founder Theo de Raadt has slammed Red Hat and Canonical for the way they have reacted to Microsoft's introduction of "secure" boot along with Windows 8, describing both companies as wanting to be the new Microsoft.
Responding to a query from iTWire about what OpenBSD, widely recognised as the most security-conscious UNIX, would be doing to cope with "secure" boot, De Raadt said: "We have no plans. I don't know what we'll do. We'll watch the disaster and hope that someone with enough power sees sense."
Microsoft will launch Windows 8 exactly three months from today. The company has said that a "secure" boot process will be needed to boot the operating system on any platform, which means that keys will be used at two stages to recognise what is being loaded. The process is done through the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface, or UEFI. There will be a mechanism to turn off this method of booting on x86 hardware; however, Microsoft has said that this will not be provided on the ARM platform.
