On Sat, 07 Jul 2012 18:14:19 +0530 Rahul Sundaram metherid@gmail.com wrote:
On 07/07/2012 03:51 PM, suvayu ali wrote:
I am more worried about "free" as in freedom. I don't quite grasp the implications as an end user. For example consider the following scenarios.
Can I freely choose to use proprietary (or for that matter alternative free) drivers for my hardware from whatever source I prefer?
On x86 systems, the ability to disable secure boot is mandated by Microsoft and needed to debug Microsoft drivers and since all the hardware manufacturers want to comply to this specification, you can be rest assured they will provide this functionality and once you disable secure boot (instructions for this will likely be in a Fedora wiki page), then you are free to load up any custom kernel/kernel module of your choice. Also Fedora will provide the tools that the project itself uses within the official repository (ie) will be free and open source and instructions to use your own key in custom mode.
I'll add here something that people seem to be missing a fair bit also:
MS has setup guidelines for hardware vendors that wish to get a "Windows 8 Client ready" sticker. Note the "client" here. They are not requiring secure boot for any hardware targeted for servers.
kevin