Why Locked Bootloaders Should Be Illegal

[eppur_se_muova]

1. There are dozens of hardware mfgrs capable of turning out their own computers.

If any OS maker requires mfgrs to use their locked boot loader, other mfgrs will move in to produce open-source compatible machines (maybe even the same mfgrs under a different label). They could even make socketed ROM bootloaders, so you could choose your own bootloader -- you'd have security against rootkit attacks, but be able to override with a different ROM if you needed to. The free market will then force corps tied to the OS makers' bootloaders to open up and tell the OS makers to deal with it.