The Linux Foundation’s solution was outlined by kernel developer James Bottomley Wednesday afternoon, and details yet another variation on how to approach the Secure Boot problem.
In order to obtain the much-valued Certified for Windows 8 sticker, any Windows 8 machine will need to run the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) instead of the old BIOS firmware layer.
BIOS has been the firmware interface for PCs for a long time. The EFI system has slowly been making headway in recent years, and right now EFI firmware is compatible with Windows supporting the GUID Partition Table (GPT), OS X/Intel, and Linux 2.6 and beyond machines. EFI is seen as a better hardware/software interface than BIOS, since it is platform-agnostic, runs in 32- or 64-bit mode, and GPT machines can handle boot partitions of up to 9.4 zettabytes.