Microsoft Palladium

Enter Palladium: Microsoft and its partners claim that their new security architecture can protect our systems. But it also presents a grave risk to our very ability to run open-source software on commodity hardware.

The definitive attacks on the technology have come via Robert X. Cringely and Ross Anderson. But both agree that Palladium will allow only authorized code to run on systems equipped with compliant hardware.

While this sounds like a good thing, its real purpose seems to be to protect content providers, to permit Microsoft to enforce draconian licensing schemes, and quite possibly to allow Microsoft to act as gatekeeper for all PC software, allowing them to collect royalties on that software as though those systems were nothing more than video game consoles.

Linux on a Leash
Unless Microsoft signs a particular Linux kernel, for example, it will almost certainly refuse to run on Palladium-equipped hardware. If a developer releases an open-source package for a Palladium-approved operating system, it will not run unless the binary has been signed. Because not every user will be able to sign binaries, end-users' ability to rebuild software from source may be eliminated entirely.

To top it all off, Palladium is unlikely to protect users from most exploits. There are a great number of attacks that can be executed within applications, as those applications have such power and reach. Microsoft Outlook viruses can continue to spread, as can other macro2