Matthew Garrett

Is this an attempt to justify the fact that you have been working to make secure boot workable for Linux? Or is it an attempt to criticise some developers you don't like who are working for Google?

No? It's an attempt to dissuade people from blindly recommending Chromebooks as an alternative to Microsoft's imposed Secure Boot setup.

Tell me one thing: in your history of using Linux, how many cases have you come across of a compromised kernel being used to boot a box?

More than once. The use of kernel modules as persistent rootkits is hardly uncommon.

Why are people suddenly all barking about secure boot? Has there been some massive security incident that nobody on earth knows about - except Microsoft and Google?

Secure Boot would be impractical to implement on BIOS systems, so the timing's largely down to the availability of alternative firmware implementations for x86. Embedded devices have implemented equivalent technology for years.