Re: Re[8]: [newbie] Thought MS was scary enough? Nope.

2003-10-10 Thread Aron Smith
On Fri, 2003-10-10 at 10:27, rikona wrote:
> Hello Aron,
> 
> Friday, October 10, 2003, 9:13:18 AM, you wrote:
> 
> AS> You mean that the board has an encrypted flash protecting the encrypted
> AS> flash. :-0
> 
> Sort of like that, yes. No key, no flash, no bios.
> 
> AS> There is a Linux BIOS out there http://www.linuxbios.org/
> 
> Remember, the board has nothing, not even the HW initialization needed
> to activate the linux bios. How will you get the HW initialization on
> that board?
> 
> If they want to really protect the board, M$ would disable, in HW,
> certain conduits on the board, and these would be activated only by
> the M$ bios. So - even if you use a plug-in board to provide the bios,
> the main board will still not work. They can make this REALLY
> difficult, if they want to.
> 
> It's the 'final solution' Herr Bill might use to stamp out linux, with
> a 'cover story' of making users more secure. Fits the M$ mentality
> just fine.
True but board designs are easy to come by given you scerenaro I would
expect a lively black market in boards that let younput in your on bios
On my first box (Altair 8080) you had to load a 512 byte program (in hex
by hand), which gave Dumbo enough smarts to read the paper tape Then you
could load a program.


Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? 
Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com


Re[8]: [newbie] Thought MS was scary enough? Nope.

2003-10-10 Thread rikona
Hello Aron,

Friday, October 10, 2003, 9:13:18 AM, you wrote:

AS> You mean that the board has an encrypted flash protecting the encrypted
AS> flash. :-0

Sort of like that, yes. No key, no flash, no bios.

AS> There is a Linux BIOS out there http://www.linuxbios.org/

Remember, the board has nothing, not even the HW initialization needed
to activate the linux bios. How will you get the HW initialization on
that board?

If they want to really protect the board, M$ would disable, in HW,
certain conduits on the board, and these would be activated only by
the M$ bios. So - even if you use a plug-in board to provide the bios,
the main board will still not work. They can make this REALLY
difficult, if they want to.

It's the 'final solution' Herr Bill might use to stamp out linux, with
a 'cover story' of making users more secure. Fits the M$ mentality
just fine.

-- 

 rikonamailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]


Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? 
Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com