Linux camp has key to Windows 8 boot lockout
(Phys.org)—Microsoft's rocky reputation with the open source community was not exactly obliterated with hardware news surrounding the upcoming launch of the operating system, Windows 8. Systems will come with Secure Boot enabled in the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI). Only operating systems with an appropriate digital signature will be able to boot. The worry was that only Windows 8 will run on these systems. Users would find it hard to boot non-Microsoft operating systems. UEFI stands for Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI)and it defines a software interface between an operating system and platform firmware.