How to Abuse a Monopolistic Position

Vista SP1 won't install on dual-boot systems: Microsoft


If you’re dualbooting Windows Vista Enterprise or Ultimate alongside a Linux distro, and have installed the Linux bootloader into the MBR, then you’re guaranteed to run into problems when installing Vista Service Pack 1, Microsoft has admitted.


Step one : Who is the competition ? (Linux)

Step Two : Make Darn Sure the customer must make a choice, they cannot have both. You don't want them to slowly easy onto Linux , you want that to be as hard a road as possible.


Microsoft Technology Advisor Michael Kleef explained to APC that “…BitLocker isn’t just about encryption and system validation, but rather data integrity. When you enter your PIN, BitLocker checks it every step of the way from the TPM chip through the bootloader, and if it finds something that doesn’t match what it’s expecting, access is denied. Installing LILO or GRUB effectively breaks the chain of trust as these bootloaders take over the MBR, so on an encrypted boot partition, this means that the system won’t boot.


Step three : Make up some excuse why you *HAVE* to backstab the competition. In this case , they decided all by themselves that Linux was insecure, and even though the tech's on the ground doing the job may have got it up and running and are very happy with that , you don't care about their opinion. You don't even know what job they're trying to do. "Data Security" and "Chain of Trust" are good catch phrases.


Easy Bypass :

This whole issue affects a lot of duel booters , people who boot from Windows or Linux on the same machine, but it really has no effect on me at all. Why ? I put Linux on my old clunker (which now runs better than my new windows machine) and my new machine still has the factory installed Windows Xp on it. When it gets to the end of that silly four year contract I signed (Note to self : never do that again ! No long contracts ! Pay cash up front or do without !) It will become my linux clunker and I'll get whatever discount machine I can afford at the time for a brand new machine.

Don't give away your old machine. Put Linux on it. And that cuts microsoft all the way out of the loop. Besides, since the machine technically has a Windows License, even though you're not using windows on it anymore , you can Legally run Wine on it , and run your old windows programs anyways.

Summary :

I simply love how the Least secure operating system in the world (windows) has decided it will not allow you to use the Most secure operating system in the world (Linux) because it doesn't trust it. I chuckle every time I think about it.

:)