Windows 8 is not the issue. The hardware is the issue.
China won't be held hostage by Gates & Co. They will continue to build hardware that will boot their bootleg windoze and modified linux.
/johnny
hmm.. the way I read it is that it is a hardware vendor’s choice on how to implement firmware for the final product. Either way, if someone does not want to deal with Windows 8, buy a machine (or better yet, build your own) that allows you to load whatever you want on it