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SFLC: Microsoft confirms UEFI fears, locks down ARM devicesSFLC: Microsoft confirms UEFI fears, locks down ARM devicesPosted Jan 13, 2012 16:10 UTC (Fri) by drag (subscriber, #31333)In reply to: SFLC: Microsoft confirms UEFI fears, locks down ARM devices by imgx64 Parent article: SFLC: Microsoft confirms UEFI fears, locks down ARM devices
> I don't understand why is Microsoft doing this. Pretty much all ARM device manufacturers already lock their devices anyway. Why did Microsoft feel like taking all the criticism itself instead of letting the manufacturers do what they've always done and let them look like the bad guys?
My educated guess is that it's part of lowering costs for themselves and reducing the need for hardware vendors to access their source code. .
Remember that with ARM the boot loader's job is much more involved then with x86. The bootloader performs the functions that the BIOS or EFI performs on x86. With a standardized boot loader they can probably have a easier time providing kernel binaries and/or drivers that work across more devices and reduce chances for odd problems caused by different initialization methods.
Since locking down devices is commonly required by many vendors for various reasons and Microsoft wants to standardize the platform, then it makes sense to have a standardized way to lock down devices.
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SFLC: Microsoft confirms UEFI fears, locks down ARM devices Posted Jan 13, 2012 16:48 UTC (Fri) by aliguori (subscriber, #30636) [Link]
> My educated guess is that it's part of lowering costs for themselves and reducing the need for hardware vendors to access their source code.
More likely, they're paying a subsidy to companies that build these devices in order to get them to use Windows 8, perhaps to the extent that they're taking a loss. The end consumer product might be cheaper than the hardware cost.
Sometime tells me, the specs for Windows 8 device are going to need to be higher than for Android. If they want to be cost competitive, they'll have to subsidize.
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