[ubuntu-uk] efi boot, Windows 8 and Linux

[Alan Bell]

On 21/09/11 23:29, Bea Groves wrote:

Just read the following. Comments?


yeah, it is potentially very nasty.
To be Windows 8 certified computers will have to be able to do this 
secure boot thing. Most will include an option to turn it off, exactly 
like the google chromebooks do, they have a switch to turn off the code 
signing requirement so you can run unsigned operating systems. The OLPC 
also has this exact same feature, but you can get a dev key and turn it off.
The problem is that some manufacturers might start not bothering to 
include an off switch. So that would creep in as a set of machines 
(probably quite mainstream high volume ones) that won't run anything but 
the pre-installed Windows 8 or above.
The big problem is that Windows 9 might *require* secure boot to run. 
This means it won't run on older machines (driving hardware sales, the 
industry likes that) and means that more manufacturers will fail to 
include an off switch for the secure boot. If the market doesn't punish 
them by people avoiding these pre-bricked computers then they will keep 
doing it. Microsoft will carefully not require OEMs to fail to include 
an off switch, because that would be anti-competitive. Virtualbox and 
VMware and so on can include the public keys and provide a secure boot 
environment, or run unsigned code for developing drivers and running 
Linux, but you won't be running Linux on the hardware, only virtualised. 
It is kind of like the current trend for using up 4 primary partitions 
and not creating extended partitions to make dual booting harder, but 
this one you potentially can't get round. I can see a time when you have 
to get a laptop chipped to run Linux like you would a DVD player to do 
multi region.


Alan.

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[ubuntu-uk] Fwd: Web Upd8 Subscription (in this message: 2 new items)

[Bea Groves]

Hi all!

Just read the following. Comments?

 Original Message 

  Web Upd8 Subscription (in this message: 2 new items)
  




Link to Web Upd8 - Ubuntu / Linux blog 



Windows 8 Certified Computers May Not Be Able To Boot Linux



Posted: 21 Sep 2011 06:19 AM PDT

According to an article by ITWorld
,
*Microsoft requires that Windows 8-certified machines use UEFI* (Unified
Extensible Firmware Interface) *with support for secure booting* instead
of the BIOS firmware.

This means that both the firmware and software used in the boot process
must be signed by a trusted Certificate Authority and at the moment,
none of the EFI Linux bootloaders is signed. So basically, if you buy a
computer that includes the manufacturer's keys and Microsoft's keys, you
won't be able to boot a Linux distribution.


To get secure UEFI booting support for a Linux distribution, a non-GPL
bootloader would be required and since in the near future the kernel
itself will be a part of the bootloader, the kernel would have to be
signed too, meaning you won't be able to compile your own custom kernels.

Matthew Garrett, a Linux developer at Red Hat says:

"Microsoft requires that machines conforming to the Windows 8 logo
program and running a client version of Windows 8 ship with secure
boot enabled. The two alternatives here are for Windows to be signed
with a Microsoft key and for the public part of that key to be
included with all systems, or alternatively for each OEM to include
their own key and sign the pre-installed versions of Windows. The
second approach would make it impossible to run boxed copies of
Windows on Windows logo hardware, and also impossible to install new
versions of Windows unless your OEM provided a new signed copy. The
former seems more likely.

[...] Firstly, we'd need a non-GPL bootloader. Grub 2 is released
under the GPLv3, which explicitly requires that we provide the
signing keys. Grub is under GPLv2 which lacks the explicit
requirement for keys, but it could be argued that the requirement
for the scripts used to control compilation includes that. It's a
grey area, and exploiting it would be a pretty good show of bad
faith. Secondly, in the near future the design of the kernel will
mean that the kernel itself is part of the bootloader. This means
that kernels will also have to be signed. Making it impossible for
users or developers to build their own kernels is not practical.
Finally, if we self-sign, it's still necessary to get our keys
included by ever OEM."



Even if the major Linux distros find a way around this (hopefully),
there are still questions like: will small Linux distributions disappear
or how will the users or various companies boot their own custom
kernels? And the most important question of all: *is this legal?*


Read more about it @ ITWorld
.












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[ubuntu-uk] Fwd: Re: Open Source Schools Project - literacy

[Barry Drake]

On 21/09/11 16:26, bod...@googlemail.com wrote:


 P.s: what call for open standards? My council clearly missed the memo

It's here:
http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/sites/default/files/resources/PPN%203_11%20Open%20Standards.pdf

I think after pressure from a certain firm, this report has been
sidelined.  What say you?

Regards,Barry.

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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Open Source Schools Project - literacy

[Sarah Chard]

O
n Wed, 2011-09-21 at 16:18 +0200, Barry Drake wrote:

> Maybe not trying to answer your specific question, my own pet hate is 
> the insistence of teaching Microsoft Publisher in schools.  I think
> we 
> should challenge this on the grounds that MS Publisher does not
> conform 
> to an open standard and is therefore going against the British 
> Government call for open standards in all government IT.  I'm not a 
> desktop publisher user, but wonder how well something like Scribus
> would 
> fill the bill for schools?

On Wed, 2011-09-21 at 14:26 +, bod...@googlemail.com wrote:

> The difficulty is, you can't just replace one product. Publisher will
> probably be licensed with a volume software licensing agreement, along
> with front page, word, excel, outlook etc etc. - so they are just
> wasting a license by not using it. If you could replace all of the
> office suite, it will be much more appealing to the schools.

This is exactly why we are running the project -  we are going into
schools with Tuxedu offering open source alternatives to the software
they are currently using - its a complicated area because schools are
locked into their MS licenses and we can't change that, so we have to
think long term whilst meeting teachers short term concerns - the idea
is that Tuxedu will be exciting and fun for the kids - the locked
version means they can use it at home running live on family machines
without their parents having to worry  - and hopefully the schools will
install it on their systems as a dual boot - we are talking to teachers
and the school techs as we go.
 At the first school we visited the deputy head was asking me about
alternative office suites - she runs XP at home and can't open .docx
files which are sent to her by work colleagues so we had a brief chat
about libre office and open formats.
Feedback from kids is good so far but unless we persuade the schools and
that means the ICT teaching staff and Head teachers to pick it up and
also the tech staff to support it we will not succeed - so it has to be
relevant to their teaching needs and that means the UK curriculum. Tony
touched briefly on this in the ubuntu-uk podcast. Getting just a few
schools in the county to seriously consider using a linux based system
as part of their ICT resources would be fantastic so we are keen to make
it as easy for teachers to accept and use as possible.

so if anyone has any ideas for FOSS literacy software please let me know

Sarah

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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Open Source Schools Project - literacy

[bodsda]

The difficulty is, you can't just replace one product. Publisher will probably 
be licensed with a volume software licensing agreement, along with front page, 
word, excel, outlook etc etc. - so they are just wasting a license by not using 
it. If you could replace all of the office suite, it will be much more 
appealing to the schools.

Bodsda
P.s: what call for open standards? My council clearly missed the memo 
--Original Message--
From: Barry Drake
Sender: ubuntu-uk-boun...@lists.ubuntu.com
To: Ubuntu-Uk
ReplyTo: b.dr...@ntlworld.com
ReplyTo: Ubuntu-Uk
Subject: Re: [ubuntu-uk] Open Source Schools Project - literacy
Sent: 21 Sep 2011 15:18

On 21/09/11 13:19, Sarah Chard wrote:
> feedback from teachers from the first school we visited as a part of 
> our OSSP is that they really need good quality programs that address 
> literacy  not just letters and spelling but grammar, punctuation and 
> sentence construction
Maybe not trying to answer your specific question, my own pet hate is 
the insistence of teaching Microsoft Publisher in schools.  I think we 
should challenge this on the grounds that MS Publisher does not conform 
to an open standard and is therefore going against the British 
Government call for open standards in all government IT.  I'm not a 
desktop publisher user, but wonder how well something like Scribus would 
fill the bill for schools?

Regards,Barry

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http://ubuntuadverts.org/


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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Open Source Schools Project - literacy

[Barry Drake]

On 21/09/11 13:19, Sarah Chard wrote:
feedback from teachers from the first school we visited as a part of 
our OSSP is that they really need good quality programs that address 
literacy  not just letters and spelling but grammar, punctuation and 
sentence construction
Maybe not trying to answer your specific question, my own pet hate is 
the insistence of teaching Microsoft Publisher in schools.  I think we 
should challenge this on the grounds that MS Publisher does not conform 
to an open standard and is therefore going against the British 
Government call for open standards in all government IT.  I'm not a 
desktop publisher user, but wonder how well something like Scribus would 
fill the bill for schools?


Regards,Barry

--

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http://ubuntuadverts.org/


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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Open Source Schools Project - literacy

[Sarah Chard]

O
n Wed, 2011-09-21 at 12:39 +0100, James Tait wrote:

> Gcompris [0] may provide some of that. I have a vague recollection of
> my
> eldest son playing a game where he had to put the correct word in the
> sentence, but glancing over the website I don't recognise it.


Hi James
we have gcompris on there but its more single letter and single words
which is good but they are looking for sentence construction activities

one of the other problems is that some of the word games we have
included such as khangman and kanagram which the kids really like as
well as gcompris are very americanised
 ie 'Pants = trousers' or my favourite kanagram which had me and 6 year
old tester stumped 'winter headgear = tobogan' (that was news to me)
another example is in gcompris where in amongst words such as jump, dry
and green they use Colorado not a word most under 10's in the UK are
familiar with.
UK teachers tend to frown on this - they want UK relevancy and the
ability to fit it to the UK curriculum - it may be a narrow view but
they will not take it up unless it works for them.
Also some of the english explanations in games from non-english speaking
countries have odd grammar or use unusual word order - we really need to
adapt them for UK use as it's a hurdle for teachers.

Sarah


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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Open Source Schools Project - literacy

[Sarah Chard]

O
n Wed, 2011-09-21 at 11:27 +, bod...@googlemail.com wrote:
Did they have specific issues with the grammar checking in OOo?
On Wed, 2011-09-21 at 13:12 +0100, paul sutton wrote:

> 
> We need contextual grammar checking which is far harder,  and probably
> even harder when you have to deal with the English language and its
> rules and the odd exception where that rule does not apply. 
> 
> Paul


we  used the locked version to demonstrate at the school so haven't
included an office suite as it's very lightweight - we are concentrating
on primary schools this term but are giving the schools a larger
installable version. At the minute for the installable primary version
we have included ABI word and gnumeric

I think what they want are fun programs like tuxmath etc that give the
kids jumbled sentences so they have to unmix the words and correct the
punctuation and grammar


Please download a copy at http://www.tuxedu.org.uk/
test it out and give it to kids to test - it's a work in progress  -
ideally we would like both locked and installable versions to be based
on lubuntu but Tony had problems locking the lubuntu so the locked
version is debian. Also the locked version needed to fit onto a cd so
anyone could run it. We want feedback please via the mailing list you
can find at the site.

Sarah


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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Open Source Schools Project - literacy

[paul sutton]

On 21/09/11 12:19, Sarah Chard wrote:
> Hi
>
> feedback from teachers from the first school we visited as a part of
> our OSSP is that they really need good quality programs that address
> literacy  not just letters and spelling but grammar, punctuation and
> sentence construction
>
> any thoughts?
>
>
> Sarah
>

At this rate we won't need teachers or schools as kids will be able to
sit at home and learn,  to me there is no substitute for a teacher

look at the following. 

I parked the car over their.
I am going to there house for lunch on Sunday.

Libre office in 11.04 is fine with the above,

We need contextual grammar checking which is far harder,  and probably
even harder when you have to deal with the English language and its
rules and the odd exception where that rule does not apply.

Paul
>
>
>
>
>

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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Open Source Schools Project - literacy

[James Tait]

-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
Hash: SHA1

On 21/09/11 12:19, Sarah Chard wrote:
> feedback from teachers from the first school we visited as a part of our
> OSSP is that they really need good quality programs that address
> literacy  not just letters and spelling but grammar, punctuation and
> sentence construction
> 
> any thoughts?

Gcompris [0] may provide some of that. I have a vague recollection of my
eldest son playing a game where he had to put the correct word in the
sentence, but glancing over the website I don't recognise it.


JT

[0] http://gcompris.net/-On-one-page-
- -- 
- ---+
James Tait, BSc|xmpp:jayte...@wyrddreams.org
Programmer and Free Software advocate  |Tel: +44 (0)870 490 2407
- ---+

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Re: [ubuntu-uk] Open Source Schools Project - literacy

[bodsda]

Did they have specific issues with the grammar checking in OOo?

Bodsda
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

-Original Message-
From: Sarah Chard 
Sender: ubuntu-uk-boun...@lists.ubuntu.com
Date: Wed, 21 Sep 2011 12:19:29 
To: UK Ubuntu Talk
Reply-To: sa...@streetentertainers.co.uk,
UK Ubuntu Talk 
Subject: [ubuntu-uk] Open Source Schools Project - literacy

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[ubuntu-uk] Open Source Schools Project - literacy

[Sarah Chard]

Hi 

feedback from teachers from the first school we visited as a part of our
OSSP is that they really need good quality programs that address
literacy  not just letters and spelling but grammar, punctuation and
sentence construction

any thoughts?


Sarah









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[ubuntu-uk] cups wrapper and ppd files

[paul sutton]

Hi

My brother printer recently died and I am looking to replace it with
another Brother printer as I have had a good few years service from the
old one.

The brother site has both cupswrapper components and ppd drivers.   I am
aware i don't need the lpr drivers as I am using cups.

As I have a cups wrapper already installed would I be right in thinking
I don't need to reinstall this, so I just download a ppd file and point
the add printer wizard thing at a ppd file.

The site is clearly aimed at systems where no driver is actually
installed hence i need the cupswrapper when i firs start off.

Thanks for any help

Paul



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