The USB that ate Linux [LWN.net]

Robert X. Cringely has reported on a new threat to Linux: a Microsoft-driven version of the USB standard which will not be usable by Linux. The article is rather short on details, but the idea seems to be that only "trusted" USB devices could be written to, and the mechanism for identifying and communicating with these devices would be closed. You'll be able to install Linux on your future motherboard, but it will not be able to work with the new USB devices.

This sort of story comes around fairly regularly. Long-time LWN readers will remember some past worries:

Once upon a time, the "Merced" architecture from Intel was to be the future of computing. Unfortunately, Merced was under nondisclosure, and, in any case, getting gcc to generate code for that architecture was said to be beyond the capabilities of its developers. In the reality, Merced, later named Itanium, had top-quality Linux support from the beginning. We're still waiting for the "future of computing" part, though.
The I2O specification was kept under wraps for some time, and it looked like Linux would be unable to drive any I2O-based hardware. Richard Stallman called I2O "a broad plan to keep hardware specifications secret". As it turned out, the specifications were released, and Linux supports I2O without trouble.

In other words, we have seen this sort of thing before. Fears of Linux-killer hardware turned out to be misplaced even in the 1990's, when Linux was a far smaller commercial force than it is now. In the current climate, it is hard to imagine the hardware companies adopting a fundamental technology (a processor or bus architecture, say) that was deliberately closed to non-Microsoft operating systems. Not all vendors rush out to embrace Linux, BSD, and MacOS users, but few will see a business case in explicitly excluding them. Especially if that exclusion would consolidate the position of a company which has not always distinguished itself with its considerate treatment of its "partners."

On the other hand, proprietary hardware and digital restrictions management schemes do bear watching. The troubles Linux has had with playing DVDs have been well documented. The "broadcast flag" will restrict the ability of Linux systems to work with digital radio receivers in the future. "Trusted computing" schemes may keep Linux off some hardware altogether. There are threats out there, but an exclusionary USB specification is probably not one of them. Nobody besides Cringely seems to know much about this new USB standard, however, and the Linux USB developers are not particularly worried about it. For the time being, the rest of us probably need not worry either.

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The USB that ate Linux

Posted Sep 23, 2004 13:05 UTC (Thu) by NRArnot (subscriber, #3033) [Link]

One mitigating factor should this nightmare come true is that USB II cards cost under £10 (probably $10 States-side), which is about 10% of the cost of a Windoze license. Compare this to the rather greater pain that Winmodems caused, because proper modems were many tens of pounds at the time (and Windoze rather less).

I'm rather more worried about the various discussions I have seen about "trusted computers" that are like X-boxes with respect to running any code other than Microsoft's. (Even if it is possible by hardware hackery or exploiting bugs, will anyone risk a business on such trickery?) But again, if current trends continue, the whole box that runs Windows will probably cost much less than Windows by then - a throwaway item, as will be the open box that runs Linux.

The biggest danger is surely data lock-in; a small naive business that starts with Microsoft, then discovers that there is no way provided or available to migrate some or all of its own data to a non-Microsoft platform. And that because of DRM it's probably impossible to do it oneself, and because of the DMCA it's illegal to try to find out.