Ubuntu wants to strip some of GRUB features in 26.10 for security purposes

Ubuntu wants to put GRUB, the program that starts your PC, on a strict “secure boot” diet in 26.10 — and the comment section lit up like a server rack. The plan: shrink GRUB’s features so secure boot only works if the machine uses an ext4 “/boot” (a plain, specific disk format), which means no encrypting that part and no fancy filesystems for booting. Translation: ZFS, XFS, Btrfs fans need an ext4 boot slice, and some RAID setups may feel the pain. Ubuntu says it’s about fewer bugs and a safer future, and if you need the old features you can turn off secure boot or stay on 26.04 LTS.

Cue the drama. Privacy hawks cried security theater, with one user yelling that leaving “/boot” unencrypted lets attackers mess with startup files — not exactly a confidence boost. Others waved compliance flags: “full‑disk encryption is mandatory in parts of Europe,” warned one commenter. Meanwhile, the bootloader wars erupted. A snarky chorus pushed for systemd‑boot: “GRUB is ancient bloatware,” joked one, while old‑hardware and cloud folks clapped back: systemd‑boot is UEFI‑only, and plenty of servers still live in BIOS land. Btrfs snapshot lovers begged, RAID users bristled, and someone dropped the mic with “I moved to Debian.” Yes, there were jokes: “rewrite it in Rust” and “config files for config files.” The vibe? Security vs. sanity — and nobody’s backing down.