"Secure-boot"...

Microsoft has mandated that computer manufacturers who ship their computers with Windows 8 configure them with secure-boot enabled.  This technology prevents the computer from booting anything that is not signed by Microsoft.  Allegedly, this is to prevent malware from infecting the boot loader of the system.
However, this also prevents computers from loading legitimate software, such as Linux or FreeBSD.  While it can be disabled on x86 systems (PCs), it cannot be disabled on ARM-based systems, like tablets.  It would appear that Microsoft is trying to squeeze Linux out of the tablet market by forcing companies to restrict what users can load on their systems.  What gives Microsoft the right to choose what operating systems people run on their hardware?  They're not even the ones who make it!    This is nothing short of monopolistic, anticompetitive behavior.
The Free Software Foundation has a started a petition to get Microsoft to change the way this "feature" is implemented, so that systems like Linux and FreeBSD are not relegated to PCs, but have a place on tablets as well...

Computer Chronicles

If I say the words Stewart Cheifet and Gary Kildall, does a super 80s jingle come to mind?  What about big hair and bad style?  No, I'm not talking about Footloose, I am talking about the Computer Chronicles!  For those who don't know, (or who were too young to remember), the Computer Chronicles was a wonderful series hosted by PBS, talking about "new" personal computers.  The series is now fully available (almost in its entirety) at the Internet Archives.  In this particular episode, they are talking about the "low-end" computers.