To Intel, AMD and Microsoft about the ability to disable Secure Boot in new hardware?

Question

linux

Since representatives of these companies are sometimes present on Habré, it may be appropriate to ask them such a question.
Gentlemen and ladies from these corporations, we (Linux-oids, in particular, and lovers of digging into the kernels of various OS, in general) are excited by the rumors: habrahabr.ru/blogs/htranslations/128860/
Can you clarify the situation with the ability to disable this feature on motherboards for desktops and laptops of the future? And if it is not disabled, will there be a mode for installing an arbitrary OS into a system with Secure Boot? And if so, how will it be organized? And if not, how do you propose to conduct a course on OS in universities? Should we start preparing for work on alternative hardware platforms already now?
X86 has always been a favorite platform due to its relative openness to any kind of software. Yes, this openness has its drawbacks, but are they really so terrible to take such a tough step to introduce this very “Safe Boot”? And is “safety” always so important? Here, by the way, from "safe sex" children are not born. Do you want to make your x86 ecosystem barren?

Answer 1

Well, for whom are the entries in the office. blog ms are written? Stop panicking, basically.
blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2011/09/22/protecting-the-pre-os-environment-with-uefi.aspx
In particular:
“@Jose Pedro Of course Windows is usable without secure boot — just like the post stated :-)”
Steven Sinofsky 22 Sep 2011 4:10 PM
MS has nothing to do with UEFI at all, Secure Boot is a UEFI feature, not Windows. Windows just supports it. She's off.

Answer 2

If Windows 8 does not boot without UEFI, then Linux or PC-BSD will eventually settle on a fair share of "obsolete" pieces of iron.
If multiboot becomes impossible on machines with Windows 8 and UEFI, then alternative desktops, virtualization and Wine will improve faster.
If UEFI allows you to boot only Windows, then we will quickly abandon this ugly x86, overgrown with crutches, and switch to Power, MIPS64 or, at worst, ARM.
Everything that is done is for the best. =)