Windows 8 shuts off Linux install

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"It's probably not worth panicking yet. But it is worth being concerned." wrote Red Hat developer Matthew Garrett in a blog post.

This is because of the ongoing hot discussions regarding Booting of Untrusted Operating systems like Linux in Windows 8 systems as it comes with Secure Boot.

The problem derives from Microsoft's decision to use a hardware-based secure boot protocol known as Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) in Windows 8 rather than the traditional BIOS we're all familiar with. Microsoft principal lead program manager Arie van der Hoeven explained and demonstrated UEFI.

Microsoft has a good reason for this. A “growing class of malware targets the boot path [and] often the only fix is to reinstall the operating system,” van der Hoeven said. “UEFI and secure boot harden the boot process and reduce the likelihood of bootkits, rootkits and ransomware.”

Garrett writes. “It's almost certainly the case that some systems will ship with the option of disabling this. Equally, it's almost certainly the case that some systems won't. It's probably not worth panicking yet. But it is worth being concerned.”

For More information : Windows 8 vs Linux