New SecureBoot Concerns Arise With Windows 10

[globaltech]

Safe boot products for the activation of Windows 10, this can be a serious problem.

[Luke]

This down the road could mean that any machine that cannot have Secure Boot turned off and also cannot be made to use user-provided keys, and doing this without ever having activated Windows would be a brick so far as Linux-only users are concerned. New laptops might become worthless (chromebooks with ChromeOS wiped might remain usable), leaving a huge hole between phones trusted only to tether to and run Signal and desktops build from aftermarket motherboards that are shipped without an OS and cannot use Intel Boot Guard as they come without the CPU.

I for one have never bought anything shipped with Windows later than Windows XP, and even in those cases wiped Windows without activation so as to keep hardware serial numbers etc out of MS databases. If I cannot boot to Linux without booting to Windows to modify UEFI settings or upgrade buggy firmware, I cannot boot at all and still trust the machine after-into the parts bin it would have to go.