There is no evidence for claims such as Palladium systems not letting Linux or other OS's run, or allowing only signed software to load. In fact the technical information which has come out so far indicates just the opposite.

http://www.neowin.net/comments.php?id=5530 is a Palladium white paper that makes a number of points. Among them, Palladium is intended to be fully backwards compatible with Windows software. It will NOT allow only signed applications to run. Doing so would be foolish as it would ruin interoperability with the vast body of existing software. The reason people choose Windows is because it runs everything they want. Creating an artificial break with the past would be the last thing Microsoft would want to do. And it is completely unnecessary given Palladium's security goals.

Furthermore, the Palladium white paper indicates that the Palladium hardware can run any TOR (the OS component that interfaces to the secure hardware). Indeed, the hardware part of Palladium is inherently OS-agnostic. All it does is reliably report what OS has booted, manage crypto keys, and provide some secure memory. Any OS can take advantage of such functionality. In fact HP is reported to be working on a "secure Linux" which can use features from the TCPA initiative which is closely related to Palladium.

Besides, for Microsoft to create a hardware platform which can't run Linux would be completely stupid given its problems with antitrust law.

Rabble-rousing is fun, but paying attention to reality can be a worthwhile endeavor, too. You might give it a try sometime.


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Link to this comment: http://www.securityfocus.com/comments/columns/96/15730#15730