Canonical and Red Hat have issued a joint statement<http://blog.canonical.com/2011/10/28/white-paper-secure-boot-impact-on-linux/>regarding Microsoft’s plan to make UEFI Secure Boot a requirement of Windows 8. Simultaneously, The Linux Foundation has issued a similar statement<http://www.linuxfoundation.org/publications/making-uefi-secure-boot-work-with-open-platforms> . We first covered this issue<http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/microsoft%E2%80%99s-take-uefi-may-impede-linux-and-that%E2%80%99s-being-polite>in September. The joint Red Hat and Canonical statement opens with an assessment of the situation: *The UEFI specification for secure boot does not define who controls the boot restrictions on UEFI platforms, leaving the platform implementer in control of the exact security model. Unfortunately, Microsoft’s recommended implementation of secure boot removes control of the system from the hardware owner, and may prevent open source operating systems from functioning. The Windows 8 requirement for secure boot will pressure OEMs to implement secure boot in this fashion. Please read more here<http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/linux-heavyweights-develop-secure-boot-strategy> *