UEFI secure boot is not required to run Windows 8.
It is required to slap a Windows 8 logo on a new machine.
That is a decision made by hardware vendors, not Microsoft. Since it is hard to imagine a serious advertising campaign based around a competitor's lack of such logos, such decisions reflect the desktop Linux market.
I suspect that hardware vendors are happy to make desktop Linux harder to install because I vividly imagine indignant support calls from novice Linux installers adopting FOSS as an ideology.
UEFI secure boot is not required to run Windows 8.
It is required to slap a Windows 8 logo on a new machine.
That is a decision made by hardware vendors, not Microsoft. Since it is hard to imagine a serious advertising campaign based around a competitor's lack of such logos, such decisions reflect the desktop Linux market.
I suspect that hardware vendors are happy to make desktop Linux harder to install because I vividly imagine indignant support calls from novice Linux installers adopting FOSS as an ideology.