(it) "is a Windows 8 chip"

[fulea.stefan]

Intel talks about Clover Trail Atom processor as being designed especially for Microsoft:
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/new ... with-linux

[milon]

Intel and MS have a close relationship, yes. A little too close, me thinks. Regardless:

...Intel's claim that Clover Trail won't run Linux is not quite true - after all it is an x86 instruction set so there is no major reason why the Linux kernel and userland will not run...

Also:

Intel and Microsoft might well find that Clover Trail is a dead end

[Z98]

It's an x86 architecture. Why the blazes do other distros need Intel's support in order to run on it? They by definition should already run as is.

[milon]

I think that, as they currently exist, Linux distros won't be able to take advantage of the new power states built into the chip. That shouldn't translate into "Linux can't use this chip", but that's what Intel marketing is trying to convince people of.

[SomeGuy]

There was a story today about a chip from AMD that is also "Windows 8 product only". This is Microsoft marketing at work, intentionally spreading uncertainty.

This is nothing new either. I'm sure everyone remembers the Athlon XP, which was "optimized for Windows XP".

[Black_Fox]

It's an x86 architecture. Why the blazes do other distros need Intel's support in order to run on it?

My only guess is that they won't hand out support for new instruction sets (to GCC) and new sleep modes (to Linux kernel).

[Stead]

is it related to the windows 8 secure boot thing?

I might of imagined this, but i'm sure windows 8 allows locking down the bios to only allow booting with windows?

[SomeGuy]

Desktop machines with the "designed for Windows 8" logo and Windows 8 tablets / phones / mobile devices are required to have SecureBoot which effectively means it can only boot Windows.

On desktop machines Microsoft permits the user to disable this feature, but it still produces an extra barrier to using any other OS. (Want to boot a live CD on your friends Windows 8 computer? You will have to go in to the BIOS and disable something that sounds like it makes his computer more secure)

On mobile devices with SecureBoot usually you can not disable it.

The only way to boot an OS with SecureBoot enabled is to get it cryptographically signed by Microsoft. A couple of Linux distros are trying to get Microsoft's magical blessing to do this. We will have to see how well that works out.

BTW, SecureBoot doesn't make anything more secure except for Microsoft's marketshare.