When Windows 8 rolled up to the curb, Microsoft did its
best to enforce a protocol known as Unified Extensible Firmware
Interface (UEFI) Secure Boot. This was to be a modern replacement for
the aging BIOS system and would help ensure boot-time malware couldn’t
be injected into a system. For the most part, Linux has overcome those
UEFI hurdles. However, with Windows 10, those hurdles could be
returning.
This BIOS replacement, UEFI, caused some serious problems
with “alternative” platforms. For some time, it was thought UEFI would
render Linux uninstallable on any system certified for Windows 8 and up.
Eventually Microsoft saw fit to require vendors to include a switch
that allowed users to disable UEFI, so that their favorite Linux
distribution could be installed. And then some Linux distributions set
out to fully support Secure Boot (Red Hat, Ubuntu, SUSE, to name a few).
This was accomplished by these particular companies purchasing digital
key that would then allow their bootloaders to pass the UEFI firmware
check. With that, those distributions have no problems dealing with
Secure Boot.
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