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Kicking Around Windows 8 Boot

It's been a while since booting has been a big issue, unless you count Baltimore Raven's Billy Cundiff's 32-yard field goal whiff. Maybe it's because we are used to waiting for machines to start (though my five-year-old daughter's XP lapper failed to budge this morning, but more on that later).

Windows 8 booting is controversial because a new security scheme almost demands that Windows, not Linux and certainly not the Mac OS, are first and foremost.

The dustup rose when it was learned that secure boot, if enabled, would disable Linux launches. There is a fix to that. What is still in play is the ability to dual boot Windows and Linux on ARM-driven machines. Here Microsoft is more mum than June Cleaver.

Since ARM units will be mostly tablets, it would be great to avail ourselves of enterprise Microsoft apps and open source consumer stuff. I hope Microsoft comes clean on all this soon, and lets us know that we can mix and match apps like Courtney Love mixes and matches personalities.

How open should Win 8 be? Tell us all by writing to [email protected].

Posted by Doug Barney on 01/23/2012 at 1:19 PM


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