First we had ‘EFI Secure Boot‘ limited to Microsoft control, and now Intel and AMD have both – somewhat coincidentally – announced that their new tablet-focussed CPUs – ‘Clover Trail‘ and ‘Hondo‘ respectively – will be ‘Windows 8 Only’, with Intel even going so far to state categorically that ‘Linux will not be supported’..     I can only assume that some ‘arrangement’ has previously been negotiated with Microsoft for them both to come out with similar position statements..   Anti-competitive, to say the least…    Hopefully their ‘consideration’ from Redmond will compensate then for losing the potentially far more lucrative Android business?    Another reason for this artificial pre-emptive restriction may well be that they do not want to be compared in a head-to-head test with Android on ARM….

Opinion:
Intel – and to a certain extent, AMD – are both worried by the continuing success of the ARM architecture, and they see Microsoft as their ‘ally’ in the coming battle..
Microsoft is scared by the rising star of ARM, which can break their cosy monopolistic relationship with Intel and AMD that has existed for many years..

Now, we will wait to see who can come up with the first ‘unofficial’ port of Linux to these CPUs..    After all, they are both just X86-based…

Robert Gadsdon  (C).2012

More reading:
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2205462/idf-intel-says-clover-trail-will-not-work-with-linux
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2205758/amds-hondo-will-only-support-windows-8-at-launch