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posted by janrinok on Saturday March 15 2014, @11:47PM   Printer-friendly
from the more-lock-in-is-just-what-we-needed dept.

FuckBeta writes:

"Guido Stepko reports - In an GOLEM interview at CEBIT 2014 fair, Frank Kuypers, technical account manager at INTEL corp., proudly presented a new feature in INTEL processors, called "hooks", beginning with the new 2014 "Merrifield" 64 bit SoC chip generation.

In the Intel network only mobiles with certain Android versions are allowed to use certain functionalities. If you then replace your Android version, e.g. by a free Cyanogenmod Android kernel, not only some chips would stop working, e.g. LTE/UMTS, but also mails from your employer would be blinded out, because now the processor itself would 'classify' the new software as 'risk'.

Now, beginning with the new 2014 power efficient mobile "Merrifield" processor generation, this functionality will be used to lock the processor for certain OS'es or OS versions. Whether there will be a SDK or use of this 'functionality' will be kept a secret, still is undecided, Kuypers said.

Ryan O'Dell sees a potential abuse of the technology: "You'll buy a computer from a shop with Windows OS and not be able to change to Linux or another OS in the future. You may be able to buy the processor unlocked for a sum. With mobile phones/tablets it can be worse with phone networks also potentially have a lock-in. It's a disaster for the consumer"

Google translation from German: (Google)

Related Stories

Dubai Police to Deploy Robotic Patrols 9 comments

Dubai Police has unveiled new self-driving mini vehicles that can patrol different areas and monitor any unusual activities using biometrics to scan crowds and identify criminals, or suspects:

About the size of a child's electric toy car, the driverless vehicles will patrol different areas of the city to boost security and hunt for unusual activity, all the while scanning crowds for potential persons of interest to police and known criminals.

The new security system is so advanced that the mini-vehicle even comes with its own drone which can be launched via a rear sleeve — both are monitored and linked to Dubai Police command room.

[...] "It can recognise people in any area and identify suspicious objects and can track suspects. It has a drone and the user [police officer] needs to access the car through fingerprint. It will be deployed at tourist destinations in Dubai," Brigadier Al Razooqi said.

Deployed at "tourist destinations?" Is that where the problems are? Originally spotted on Bruce Schneier's blog.

Related: Dubai Deploys "Robocop"


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  • (Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 16 2014, @12:08AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 16 2014, @12:08AM (#17002)

    In an GOLEM interview at CEBIT 2014 fair, Frank Kuypers, technical account manager at INTEL corp., proudly presented a new feature in INTEL processors, called "hooks", beginning with the new 2014 "Merrifield" 64 bit SoC chip generation.

    /s/feature/bug/g

  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 16 2014, @12:09AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 16 2014, @12:09AM (#17003)

    ... But a wake up call to stop buying Intel products because for years now they have been backdoored so badly that you may as well walk around with a big opening in the back of your pants, it's no less private than owning an Intel.

    • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 16 2014, @12:30AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 16 2014, @12:30AM (#17015)

      But a wake up call to stop buying Intel products because for years now they have been backdoored so badly that you may as well walk around with a big opening in the back of your pants, it's no less private than owning an Intel.

      Hey -- I only wear those pants in private situations at the weekend. You insensitive clod!

    • (Score: 5, Interesting) by rev0lt on Sunday March 16 2014, @03:16AM

      by rev0lt (3125) on Sunday March 16 2014, @03:16AM (#17052)

      it's no less private than owning an Intel.

      Or any other "modern" CPU. On x86/AMD64 DMA attacks exist for a decade, and they aren't going away soon.

    • (Score: 5, Interesting) by TheGratefulNet on Sunday March 16 2014, @04:14AM

      by TheGratefulNet (659) on Sunday March 16 2014, @04:14AM (#17074)

      I present this link and you guys can decide if this is real or not:

      http://everist.org/eevblog/20140128_NSA_ANT_Intel_ yellow.txt [everist.org]

      I honestly don't know and have not seen such a thing, but someone claims they have.

      fwiw

      --
      "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
    • (Score: 4, Interesting) by Hairyfeet on Sunday March 16 2014, @07:19AM

      by Hairyfeet (75) <{bassbeast1968} {at} {gmail.com}> on Sunday March 16 2014, @07:19AM (#17112) Journal

      As long as we have AMD I really don't see a problem, just one more reason to buy AMD.

      Remember folks that the benches have been rigged for years (look up "Intel Cripple Compiler" to see how, and yes even the latest version is rigged, it merely documents now that its rigged but you still can't get it to put out SSE code with a non Intel CPUID) so don't go by those, take one for a spin and see for yourself. I have been AMD exclusive in the shop for years (only Intel systems are trade ins) and unless you are one of those in the few fields where you need every possible MHz (wave simulation, uberheavy number crunching) I bet my last buck in a blind test you wouldn't tell the difference...but your wallet would know.

      So if Intel wants to be a douche? Well this isn't the first time, remember who was pushing for Palladium last time, but being geeks we CAN make a difference as folks come to us to find out what to buy. Steer them away from Intel and towards AMD. As a nice bonus if you care about freedom and FOSS software AMD has been opening up their designs as fast as they can and are even paying for devs to work with th FOSS driver guys so AMD is the obvious choice on that front as well. I know my AMD hexa is pushing 5 years old and I'm still quite happy with it, it blows through video transcodes and games like nothing and runs insanely cool with nothing but a $25 HSF cooling it. A system similar to mine now goes for around $350 shipped in a Tigerkit and I've seen the quad kitss as low as $175, you just can't beat that.

      --
      ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
      • (Score: 2) by SlimmPickens on Sunday March 16 2014, @11:16AM

        by SlimmPickens (1056) on Sunday March 16 2014, @11:16AM (#17149)

        Tiger what? Tell me more about these cheap computers.

        • (Score: 2) by VLM on Sunday March 16 2014, @01:21PM

          by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Sunday March 16 2014, @01:21PM (#17169)

          Can't speak for original poster, but I immediately thought of tiger direct and their bare bones upgrade kits and/or mobo kits.

          They don't sell upgrade kits quite what I'm looking for... they sell CPU/mobo kits, and "everything but the keyboard" combos, but not (or at least, not many) CPU/mobo/memory kits.

          I usually seem to upgrade at the mobo level since the 80s or so ... cpu, mobo, and memory. I don't need another power supply, or another case, or another video card. I certainly don't need another keyboard. So that's kinda annoying.

          • (Score: 2, Informative) by Hairyfeet on Sunday March 16 2014, @11:40PM

            by Hairyfeet (75) <{bassbeast1968} {at} {gmail.com}> on Sunday March 16 2014, @11:40PM (#17320) Journal

            There is a good reason for that friend, its because the price of memory is changing too often and most builders want to choose how much RAM they need for a system. Your best bet if you don't want the whole shebang is the CPU/MOBO combos [tigerdirect.com] the best deal of which ATM is IMHO this hexa kit [tigerdirect.com] which sounds like EXACTLY what you want. Its got an unlocked hexacore, motherbaord, and 4gb of RAM.

            --
            ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
            • (Score: 2) by VLM on Monday March 17 2014, @01:38PM

              by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Monday March 17 2014, @01:38PM (#17568)

              That's an interesting looking kit. The kind of thing I'd probably buy if I were currently in the market for a mobo. The same "advanced internet technology" that allows the purchaser to select an extended warranty could presumably be repurposed to select one or two memory... looks like the mobo is only a two memory slot. I have 16 gigs right now, so 2 slots each with 4 gig would not be an "upgrade".

              Right now my main performance limiter would be not having SSD. After that probably video card. After that then I'll start looking for a new mobo, at which point this one will be long obsolete but something similar to it would likely be appealing.

              • (Score: 1) by Hairyfeet on Tuesday March 18 2014, @12:50AM

                by Hairyfeet (75) <{bassbeast1968} {at} {gmail.com}> on Tuesday March 18 2014, @12:50AM (#17867) Journal

                This is why I start with a kit and then when it comes time to upgrade I get a new board and repurpose the board that came with the kit. My current PC started with an Athlon X2 kit with 2 RAM slots with 1Gb each, I first swapped the board for a newer board with 4 RAM slots (while giving the older board to one of the boys) and then later down the line I swapped the X2 for a Phenom II X4 followed by the Phenom II X6. This way I could start with a really cheap kit and then take my time and keeping an eye out on the sales it keeps the price really low while making sure I'm never without a system.

                 

                My final total on this system is less than $600 and has 8Gb of RAM (can hold 16Gb but I really don't see a point in that much RAM ATM), 3Tb of HDD space and an HD7750. If you don't have people to pass them to Craigslist or similar allow you to recoup a large portion of your purchase price thus making the system even cheaper.

                BTW a word of warning...SSDs to this day die WITHOUT WARNING so either have the OS and ONLY the OS so if it dies you can just reimage without loss or have it mirrored with a HDD so you don't end up losing your data. In many ways SSDs are in the same place that HDDs were in the 80s, many huge improvements but stability? Not really there yet.

                --
                ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
        • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Hairyfeet on Sunday March 16 2014, @07:16PM

          by Hairyfeet (75) <{bassbeast1968} {at} {gmail.com}> on Sunday March 16 2014, @07:16PM (#17238) Journal

          Here ya go friend, this is where I get a LOT of the towers I sell..enjoy [tigerdirect.com]. I'd say the best deals ATM are the $120 APU kit which gives you a dual core APU (I've built a couple of these, the GPU is great for HD video acceleration and light gaming and the board will go up to a quad if you want) along with board case and PSU, but if you want a MEAN motor scooter, and I do mean mean, the oldest has one of these hexacores and they just blow through anything he throws at it, the $194 Hexacore Kit [tigerdirect.com] is fucking smoking. Thanks to Turbo its like having TWO CPUs, a 3.3Ghz Hexacore and a 3.9 GHz triple, and the summary is wrong as the board supports 16Gb of RAM not 8Gb.

          So if you want a new PC that kicks some booty without kicking your wallet? You really can't go wrong with AMD Tigerkits. I have been buying from them for years and never had a bit of trouble, in fact the one time they fucked up (one of their kits had paired a CPU with a board that couldn't take it) they not only apologized and sent a board that would take the CPU but they told me to just keep the original board. the system I'm typing this on is a 5 year old Tower I built from a Tigerkit, its had 2 CPU upgrades so far and its been a champ, just purrs like a kitten.

          And for those that haven't used an AMD lately? Quit buying the rigged benchmark bullshit and actually try one, both their mobile and their desktop lines frankly kick some serious ass without beating the shit out of your wallet. Hell go to Tiger and they have AMD quad laptops starting at $350 and after buying a couple for customers I can say those jaguar APUs are kick ass for multimedia and day to day work. needless to say its not gonna play Crysis 3 but I did play some Portal 2 and Torchlight 2 and it was smooth as butter and the battery life is kicking. the only reason i haven't gotten one for myself is frankly my Asus AMD netbook still is humming right along, plays 1080P over HDMI, still gets nearly 4 hours on a 4 year old battery (down from 6 but I rarely need more than 3 hours off mains so who cares) and I just don't see a reason to get a new one when the one i have works fricking great. The AMD systems are really tough and just run and run, hell I have first gen Athlon 64s and Phenom Is still being used in the field and the customers are quite happy with them. So if you haven't given AMD a spin no is the time, I mean how can you beat a fricking hexacore kit for $200?

          --
          ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
          • (Score: 2) by Reziac on Monday March 17 2014, @02:43AM

            by Reziac (2489) on Monday March 17 2014, @02:43AM (#17353) Homepage

            TigerDirect used to be notorious for ducking out on warranties and such. Have they changed their stripes??

            [Fancy meeting you here! :) ]

            --
            And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
            • (Score: 1) by Hairyfeet on Monday March 17 2014, @06:09AM

              by Hairyfeet (75) <{bassbeast1968} {at} {gmail.com}> on Monday March 17 2014, @06:09AM (#17421) Journal

              Hi again! And I guess you missed the memo, that was the OLD Tigerdirect, when the previous management ran the company into the ground he got the boot and they restructured...2008 IIRC but don't quote me on that, and since then they have made customer happiness job #1. As I said in another post when they screwed up and sent a kit with a board that wouldn't take the chip? Not only did they rush me out a new (frankly better) board at no cost next day air but they told me to keep the original! Now THAT is service!

              And I haven't had a bit of trouble getting RMAs from the new Tiger...hey you remember a couple years back when Seagate was having all their 1.5Tb drives shit the bed? I got bit by a couple of those, took me less than 5 minutes on live chat to get my RMA. It did take 3 weeks to get the refund but the M in RMA isn't something Tiger has any control over and the second they were processed by Seagate the money was back in my account. I of course could have gotten it faster if I would have agreed to swap but I learnt my lesson and bought some Samsung 2Tb drives that are purring like kittens to this day.

              Let me put it THIS way...every single desktop PC in my family, 3 gamer boxes (mine and both boys), 2 work boxes, as well as 2 laptops, they ALL came from Tiger. Hell I've even started getting tablets from them, not a bit of trouble and the prices are fricking great.

              --
              ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
              • (Score: 2) by Reziac on Monday March 17 2014, @01:36PM

                by Reziac (2489) on Monday March 17 2014, @01:36PM (#17566) Homepage

                That's great to know -- I'll give them another chance, then!! (I'd not been burned by the old TD, but I knew plenty of folks who had been.) I hadn't heard a word about the death and resurrection, but that had to be the best thing that coulda happened to 'em.

                Living near Los Angeles, I had such good access to parts at wholesale thru various good clone shops, that I hardly ever bothered to look at the online marketers, other than Geeks before they shut their doors to the public (they just do B2B now). Now back in Montana and... well, there ain't nothin' here, other than captive-market pricing. :(

                --
                And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
                • (Score: 1) by Hairyfeet on Tuesday March 18 2014, @07:19AM

                  by Hairyfeet (75) <{bassbeast1968} {at} {gmail.com}> on Tuesday March 18 2014, @07:19AM (#17955) Journal

                  If you are looking for a super cheap system you can't beat the AMD hexacore/mobo combos at Tiger, Mine has lasted nearly 5 years and still kicks ass to this very day. games, transcoding, hell I've burnt DVDs while transcoding AND playing a FPS and its been smooth as butter, for an upgrade that cost less than $150 as a set? You just can't beat that.

                  --
                  ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
                  • (Score: 2) by Reziac on Tuesday March 18 2014, @02:42PM

                    by Reziac (2489) on Tuesday March 18 2014, @02:42PM (#18106) Homepage

                    Pretty good price, but I'm reluctant to pay money for AMDs. I'll take one if it falls on my head, but I've never been impressed with 'em outside of gaming (which I really don't do, other than DOOM -- I have a 3GHz system on an MB-800 industrial mobo with ISA slots, just for DOOM!!) AMDs run too hot, they're too sensitive to heat (I've seen fried AMDs, I've never seen a fried Intel... and I've seen Intels survive long-term with dead fans and buried in cig sludge and getting hot enough the mobo was *warped* and the bakelite was crumbly), and the AMD mobos don't seem to have the lifespan either (seen lots of deaders, while dead clone-market Intels are rare). Speaking from 10+ years as the hardware dude for the local user group -- I vetted tons [literally] of EOL'd donations, and that made it real clear what survives and what doesn't. You get a different picture at that point than from doing repairs (did that for some years too).

                    And AMD's errata sheet has historically been 3x the size of Intel's, meaning 3x more unfixed bugs in an average CPU. I recall one in particular because a friend spent 6 months chasing it before AMD admitted (well, one of their engineers did, the company never made good) -- what do you mean it doesn't handle a 32bit bus, WTF?? There really wasn't much excuse for that, considering at the time they were just one generation beyond building off Intel's code. More recently, AMD64 was incompatible with some common higher-end nVidia chip (I don't recall which exactly) -- locked up the moment you went above the default resolution. The fix? Replace with an AMD32, or find a lesser vidcard. (Which mightily pissed off the clone-server dealer where I watched this debacle unfold.)

                    TFA seems to say that Intel CPUs for one particular vendor and purpose will be locked, not that all of 'em will be locked. Considering how many wind up in server racks (which is where the real money is) with about half of those destined to run *NIX, OS locking across the board would be corporate suicide.

                    --
                    And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
                    • (Score: 2, Informative) by Hairyfeet on Wednesday March 19 2014, @06:55AM

                      by Hairyfeet (75) <{bassbeast1968} {at} {gmail.com}> on Wednesday March 19 2014, @06:55AM (#18440) Journal

                      Dude that is like saying you won't buy Intel because of the P2 division bug. The first gen Barton Athlons had a defective thermal monitor (which I've seen the exact same bug in C2D based pentiums, only reason you didn't hear more about it was they were used in low end systems with no ability to OC, but block the fan and watch 'em cook) but that was nearly half a decade ago. I frankly don't game much either but honestly you don't have to game to enjoy having 6 real cores.

                      As far as dead boards? Avoid MSI and Foxconn, but those boards are junk on both sides of the fence. For a good cheap board look at the Asrock or Asus boards, just remember to set the Asrock memory manually as it tends to be aggressive on its RAM timings. I've been building and selling AMDs exclusively for nearly half a decade and I haven't seen a single dead one where it wasn't killed by PEBKAC like plugging straight into an outlet and not unplugging during storms, but as long as you don't buy junk (which the junk OEMs have pretty much died out, even the cheapos use solid caps and decent traces now) an AMD will last for years and the money you save will let you have a better overall system.

                      --
                      ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
                      • (Score: 2) by Reziac on Wednesday March 19 2014, @01:33PM

                        by Reziac (2489) on Wednesday March 19 2014, @01:33PM (#18529) Homepage

                        Didja know Foxconn makes the huge majority of odds and ends that go into any mobo? :) But yeah, their own-bran mobos have always been shit. If I have a choice I'm rather a Tyan bigot, followed by SuperMicro and perhaps iBase (http://www.ibase.com.tw/mb800.htm)

                        MSI's older Pentium boards were crap, but up about the P3 era they got good -- stable and durable so long as you didn't go with the cheaper models. I haven't seen their current crop... but it wouldn't surprise me if their AMD boards were lower-quality than their Intel boards; I've seen that a lot from various companies across the years (started building these buggers ~1994).

                        That shitty mobo in low-end eMachines was reportedly made by Asus (tho toward the end they actually got decent). And it looked like an Asus, so I tend to believe it. It's building to spec that counts, not so much brand.

                        I'd have to check AMD's errata sheet to see how they're really doing (assuming it's still public, which hasn't always been the case either). But LIS it's historically been 3x the length of Intel's, and that disturbs me, especially having run into unfixed major bugs in flagship products... and I mean fatal bugs you could hardly avoid tripping over with everyday OSs, not minor things most people would never notice.

                        Only reason I'd buy a new mobo again is cuz having moved back to the sticks, salvage isn't so readily available. I think I last bought new in 1998. At least this way I get what I pay for. ;)

                        --
                        And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
                        • (Score: 1) by Hairyfeet on Thursday March 20 2014, @12:22AM

                          by Hairyfeet (75) <{bassbeast1968} {at} {gmail.com}> on Thursday March 20 2014, @12:22AM (#18737) Journal

                          The way I look at it is this...if a company can't be trusted then they can't be trusted, end of story. Foxconn only makes decent shit for other people because those other people make sure there are riders in the contracts, look at how many tales of defective hardware have ben traced back to them over the years. And as for MSI? They are fucking liars that do zero QA, period. For an example they will list chips released nearly 2 years after a board has been released as compatible when THEY NEVER TESTED IT because ALL they do is look at the watts, PERIOD. You find this out soon enough when their boards say they support the i Series or FX series but you find out it'll never even post, the reason being as late Phenom II and the i Series all have turbo which requires more voltage than the stock watts and their older boards just can't give it the power.

                          As far as the OEMs..they are cheap, don't matter who makes 'em they penny pinch the living fuck out of 'em. Doesn't always make 'em shit, just severely limits what you can do with them but as long as you know that they are okay. The MSI and Asus boards made for HP make just fine office boxes or netboxes, just don't try to add more cores than it came with or turn it into a gaming PC and they are often adequate for your day to day tasks, they generally won't last as long as the mainstream offerings but that usually isn't much of a problem with the average lifespan of a PC being 7 years they are usually able to go 3-6 which is fine for the price.

                          As for the errata...unless you are doing particle simulations or other extreme number crunching (which frankly if that is the case you should be running a workstation chip anyway) then the odds of you running into one of those bugs is about the same as you winning $2500 playing a scratch off ticket, not impossible but highly unlikely. Take the Phenom I bug that was so famous, I bought a ton of those chips, never applied the patch (which would cause a 10% hit in windows) and I never actually saw the bug in action, not once. The same goes for Intel errata, the odds of you hitting the P2 bug was insanely low.

                            BTW true fact, the reason you saw all those burnt Athlon boxes? The first gen Athlons were able to be unlocked by pencil tracing a couple spots on the board and it was simple as hell to change a few reg settings and have Windows "lie" about which chip was in it so unscrupulous dealers would often unlock the Athlons and OC the living hell out of them so they could sell them as premium models for premium prices. I don't know how many systems I got in the shop during that period because "it was acting funny" or "it crashes a lot" only to go into BIOS and find it had as high as a 60% OC. I'd talk to the owner and sure enough they had paid as much as $1500 for a $500 system. Can't blame AMD for shitheads being shitty though and if I got to it in time before the chip was cooked I could reset the clock and they would often last for years.

                          --
                          ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
          • (Score: 2) by SlimmPickens on Monday March 17 2014, @07:52AM

            by SlimmPickens (1056) on Monday March 17 2014, @07:52AM (#17439)

            Here ya go friend

            Thanks, very useful! Tiger has evaded my filter bubble. Those prices are good enough that I can ship CPU's and SSD's to Australia and not care about the warranty.

            The main thing that impresses me about those AMD chips is the full set of virtualization extensions. The efficiency is bad but the price is so good that one of those hexacore kits might just be the first computer bought specifically for my new xen setup. The only other hardware I've specifically bought so far is this [routerboard.com] router that has comprehensive wirelss control (point to multipoint, virtual AP's, tuning) and lots of enterprise features including rudimentry support for openflow. Not bad for $130 list price.

            • (Score: 1) by Hairyfeet on Monday March 17 2014, @01:45PM

              by Hairyfeet (75) <{bassbeast1968} {at} {gmail.com}> on Monday March 17 2014, @01:45PM (#17576) Journal

              Don't buy the power bullshit friend, as AMD and Intel figure their differently so its not comparable. IIRC Intel figures their based on a theoretical load while AMD runs real world tests and bases their numbers on what you will see in the field. I can tell you that my hexacore gets pounded damned near 24/7, when not gaming its transcoding or doing backups and it still runs cool enough that it maxes out at just 128F with a $29 Hyper N520 Coolermaster (Great HSF BTW, fits into nearly any mATX and is VERY quiet, pretty much all I use on my new builds anymore).

              And if you are into VMs? Boy are you gonna be a happy camper, AMD virtualization support is top notch. Hell I have run Linux and XP VMs on my little E350 netbook, thanks to the hardware VM support and large amount of RAM it just purrs and those hexacores make running multiple VMs child's play. Folks wonder why I never mention the octocores but IMHO the hexacores are the sweet spot and the extra $$ for those two cores just don't make for a good deal unless you can come up with enough useful work to keep that many cores fed, not to mention the octocores are hotter and slower than the 95w hexas.

              So enjoy your new gear, I bet once you see how nicely those AMD purr and how nice the Tiger prices are you'll be like me and shop there a lot. BTW just FYI but another nice feature is most AMD boards support ECC RAM so unlike Intel you don't need server boards and chips to get that feature...enjoy!

              --
              ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by BsAtHome on Sunday March 16 2014, @12:09AM

    by BsAtHome (889) on Sunday March 16 2014, @12:09AM (#17004)

    If a CPU is not capable of executing any program, then it is not a CPU anymore as we've known it. It'll be a paperweight and planned obsolescence device. You lose all flexibility by artificially limiting the processor to executing one program/OS. Even an update of the OS may give you "I cannot allow you to do that Dave" problems (besides the obvious hack-ability). A Bad Thing(TM). It is not up to the chip/CPU vendor to tell us what me may or may not run on it.

    • (Score: 5, Interesting) by GungnirSniper on Sunday March 16 2014, @12:17AM

      by GungnirSniper (1671) on Sunday March 16 2014, @12:17AM (#17006) Journal

      Odd that we're passing laws restricting auto sales and mobile chargers, but this planned obsolescence offering makes only a blip on the radar. Intel's market isn't us, but the hardware makers who will do anything to keep us from doing unintended things. Their thinking is 'if you're happy with your device now, we will stop updates so you upgrade'. Sad that now 'Intel Inside' may eventually mean something like 'Sony Designed'.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 16 2014, @12:25AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 16 2014, @12:25AM (#17010)

        Intel isn't pushing beta, it's not even pushing alpha. This is worse than Dice! FuCK InTEL!

        • (Score: 3, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Sunday March 16 2014, @09:04AM

          by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Sunday March 16 2014, @09:04AM (#17131) Journal

          You are late to the game. Many of us said "Fuck Intel" years ago.
          http://www.lawandliberty.org/P_3.htm [lawandliberty.org]

          Intel has never catered to the consumer, they cater to the government and authoritarian regimes. That doesn't even begin to address their anti-competetive business ethics.

      • (Score: 5, Interesting) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday March 16 2014, @12:36AM

        by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Sunday March 16 2014, @12:36AM (#17021) Homepage

        Fuck 'em. Existing hardware is more than good enough for everything we need to do. And if this is implemented in common PCs, used PC sales and AMD stock will skyrocket. People won't just guzzle this down, even the more stupid computer users like their shit to "just work" and have often used pirated OS media after losing the original restore CDs and documentation.

        Another aspect mentioned in the article but not yet mentioned here is the overhead on the processor. While I like the idea of a virus scanner running on the CPU itself, I don't like how they've traditionally been resource hogs. A competent user could do without virus scanners on even XP, but what if you had no choice in the matter because the code is required to run on the CPU? Sure, the system could be usable, but think about how much more powerful it could be without that overhead. Alternately, there's the problem with shovelware on retail PCs and phones -- so imagine what it would be like to have mandatory shovelware running on the CPU itself! Inline ads in your own pictures and documents, pop-ups, and of course an even bigger potentially gaping backdoor.

        And how would the OS be enforced? Surely somebody will reverse-engineer the magic word or encryption used by the OS verification mechanism. The idea stinks of buttnuggets.

        • (Score: 5, Insightful) by edIII on Sunday March 16 2014, @02:07AM

          by edIII (791) on Sunday March 16 2014, @02:07AM (#17039)

          As described though the technology sounds awesome. Only needs 1 extra thing: User control

          Imagine a processor where it did implement a hardware level lower OS that did nothing but filter and block programs from running. That would be quite awesome actually and be a much safer system. Not even rootkits could get into this thing.

          If the processor required physical access and programming that anyone could do the manufacturer could not lock us out that way. It could work under the consumers control.

          Of course I want a unicorn and a pony. Intel will have finally sold out completely by doing this and nobody will trust them the moment this hits market.

          I'll order chips from North Korea before I order Intel again.

          --
          Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
        • (Score: 5, Funny) by juggs on Sunday March 16 2014, @02:51AM

          by juggs (63) on Sunday March 16 2014, @02:51AM (#17048) Journal

          ..after losing the original restore CDs and documentation..

          Which century did you last buy a "device" in?

          If you're lucky you get a "recovery" partition from which if everything is aligned correctly, it is a solstice and nubile maidens are sacrificed at some unannounced stone circle, will be capable of restoring the "device" to something like it was when you bought it (not much help if it's the disk that pegs out of course).

          If you are doubly lucky your new "device" will have some preloaded funky "restore DVD creator wizard" application that will nag you incessantly to burn your own restore media, despite in most cases the "device" not actually having any optical burning capabality. Should you be trebly lucky and have been granted the privelege of an optical writer the "wizard" will instruct you that you need 20 DVDs - so you obediently buy a 20 or 30 drum of writeable DVDs and begin the process of creation. During which process, between the "device" going to sleep because it is idle, needing more updates (and automatically rebooting "for your safety"), being generally distracted by nagging you to do other "vital" things to sustain it's existence it royally fucks up writing said DVDs and spews a torrent of "verification of media failed" errors, leading you to purchase at least double the originally required number of blank DVDs.

          Should you have the patience of a lobotomised saint, whose sainthood happened to be granted to be saint of all that is patient in the most patient society in the whole of patience eternal - maybe a couple of weeks later you can smugly look at the stack of "successfully" burnt DVDs, neatly etched in your finest marker prose - "Disc1", "Disc2" etc.

          Being a concientious, obedient and patient chap - you think OK, well now they are burnt, I should test them - it's only been a couple of weeks and I've done nothing yet with this device other than some updates and burn these DVDs, now would be the time to test my backup. After a day or so of searching for the cunningly disguised online manual for your "device" (no you don't get that on paper) you find the magic incantation to commence the restore process at reboot - seems straight forward enough - "Place 'Disc1' in the drive and hold the magic incantation buttons whilst booting". OK.

          "Device" boots up and magic words appear - "Restore initiated - Disc1 found. Proceeding with restore - initial format of drive... ... .."

          After a couple of days another message - "Drive format complete... commencing restore... !ERROR Disc1 failed - please insert other media or try again Y-N-Maybe-LOLUnicorns?! ~Bieber~ _ "

          By this point delerium is starting to set in and you think perhaps 'LOLUnicorns?!' might be the best option, but quickly dismiss that as nonsense and realise there is no sane answer to the question posed (and damned if you are letting a default Bieber rum amok), surely the guy who programmed this recovery routine was sensible and thought to provide a failsafe - so you hit the only option - the power off, can't make things any worse right?.

          Once the beautiful purple LEDS have stopped winking and things have gone dark, you rescue 'Disc1' from the drive and restore it to it's rightful place on top of the DVD pile. Then hit power...
          "No trusted boot media or OS found Y-N-Maybe-LOLUnicorns?! ~Bieber~ _ "

          At this point your only hope is the manufacturer's hell-desk.... and how has that ever worked out for anyone? You know it's game over, you have a paperweight, can't even summon the strength to pick up the telephone receiver to dial the premium rate "support" number that will route you through 50 different menu options before helpfully placing you in a queue where "your call is important to us" for roughly the next 3 millenia before then conecting you to a service engaged tone briefly and then promptly disconnecting you with an amazingly irksome yet chirpy "Please try later.".

          ~~~

          HOW the fuck did it come to this?
          TRUST a hardware manufacturer to have OUR interests at heart and allow them to decide what may or may not run? Sure, that will work out all fine and dandy I'm sure.

          This crap just keeps resurfacing over and over again, it's like the unflushable turd - a fucking turd made of expanded polystyrene then quickly spray painted brown to make it look like a turd, then given an even quicker blast of gold paint to make it look good and briefly shown a polishing rag.

          No, no and thrice no. Just fuck off and make some fast hardware - that's what you're good at (alledgedly, although your continual need to be messing about in someone else's space might suggest otherwise).

          ~~~
          Well I sure hope no-one actually managed to read right through that all, it feels better having waffled it all off anyway. My apologies to those who did wade through it all now feel an absolute sense of gloom about there lives, I would stop to help, but I'm on hold to Intel suuport... apparently my call is important to them! :D

          • (Score: 5, Informative) by Nerdfest on Sunday March 16 2014, @03:20AM

            by Nerdfest (80) on Sunday March 16 2014, @03:20AM (#17053)

            The last laptop I bought was from System 76. No troubles of this sort at all. I think people need to start paying attention to buying from suppliers that have at least some of their customers interests in mind.

            • (Score: 2) by juggs on Sunday March 16 2014, @05:00AM

              by juggs (63) on Sunday March 16 2014, @05:00AM (#17086) Journal

              Or just not bothering to buy at all.

          • (Score: 4, Insightful) by clone141166 on Sunday March 16 2014, @04:37AM

            by clone141166 (59) on Sunday March 16 2014, @04:37AM (#17078)

            Can't stop laughing at that comment. It's scary how many parts of it align with reality though.

          • (Score: 4, Funny) by Runaway1956 on Sunday March 16 2014, @09:18AM

            by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Sunday March 16 2014, @09:18AM (#17133) Journal

            ROFLMAO

            You err though. "before helpfully placing you in a queue where "your call is important to us" for roughly the next 3 millenia" India has reduced those call waiting times to less than 2.5 millenia, and they are working to reduce them further. The world is following suit, as quickly as technology permits!

          • (Score: 5, Informative) by marcello_dl on Sunday March 16 2014, @11:53AM

            by marcello_dl (2685) on Sunday March 16 2014, @11:53AM (#17155)

            That is why you usb boot into clonezilla before even registering your windows installation, get rid of unwanted documents and image your entire hard drive. Of course this is not possible with secure boot, in that case return the faulty PC as it is a faulty PC as it does not do PERSONAL COMPUTING.

          • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Monday March 17 2014, @03:35PM

            by tangomargarine (667) on Monday March 17 2014, @03:35PM (#17659)

            +1 Simultaneously Laughing And Crying

            --
            "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 17 2014, @05:38PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 17 2014, @05:38PM (#17716)

            That.. That was beautiful.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 17 2014, @11:45PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 17 2014, @11:45PM (#17843)

            I LOLUnicorned hard at this

        • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Monday March 17 2014, @03:27PM

          by tangomargarine (667) on Monday March 17 2014, @03:27PM (#17650)

          While I like the idea of a virus scanner running on the CPU itself,

          I just threw up in my mouth a little bit. (Although I agree with all your other points.)

          --
          "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by gmby on Sunday March 16 2014, @12:30AM

      by gmby (83) on Sunday March 16 2014, @12:30AM (#17016)

      Agreed, but it'll be hacked in due time. This just adds one more bug/feature obstical for the kernel programers to overcome. I thought Intel was being more open to OSS? Time to reevaluate my upcoming purchase of six Intel servers.

      Sorry Intel, Hello AMD!

      --
      Bye /. and thanks for all the fish.
      • (Score: 4, Informative) by Nerdfest on Sunday March 16 2014, @02:10AM

        by Nerdfest (80) on Sunday March 16 2014, @02:10AM (#17040)

        Hacked is irrelevant. Giving them money for this sort of this is funding the loss of your own freedom to an even greater degree than buying an iPhone and then jail-breaking it. Intel should face a boycott for even mentioning this.

    • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Monday March 17 2014, @03:22PM

      by tangomargarine (667) on Monday March 17 2014, @03:22PM (#17646)

      This sounds like a similar thing to the SecureBoot wankery, which also fills me with rage at the profanation of the computing spirit driven by market reasoning it is.

      Bits don't care about your IP and ownership. Bits just do what they say. Or at least, until they roll this processor out, they do :(

      --
      "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 16 2014, @12:21AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 16 2014, @12:21AM (#17008)

    how's that work for virtual machines?

    • (Score: 2) by ls671 on Sunday March 16 2014, @12:31AM

      by ls671 (891) Subscriber Badge on Sunday March 16 2014, @12:31AM (#17017) Homepage

      There would probably be a layer between the real host cpu and the guest cpus in any VM product to allow abstraction. Then again, I am not sure if these cpus even support virtualization since they seem to be for android devices.

      --
      Everything I write is lies, including this sentence.
      • (Score: 2, Interesting) by jayjay.br on Sunday March 16 2014, @12:40AM

        by jayjay.br (1849) on Sunday March 16 2014, @12:40AM (#17023)

        Right, we used to do this before we had IntelVT and AMD-V. It is called binary translation. The 'ring 0' operations in the guest (where the 'feature' would be implemented) actually runs in ring 1 as 'virtual 0'. Reverting to this actually would be a step backwards, because hardware-assisted virtualization dramatically improved performance. But if it is needed it will surely happen.

        Also, yeah, it is supposed to be for mobile, and maybe for desktops, but never for servers!

        • (Score: 2) by ls671 on Sunday March 16 2014, @02:03AM

          by ls671 (891) Subscriber Badge on Sunday March 16 2014, @02:03AM (#17036) Homepage

          I have the vmx flag on intel and I use "hardware-assisted virtualization" with qemu.

          There still seems to be an abstraction layer there, probably handy for portability. I think I remember playing with qemu command line parameters, you can expose more native cpu flags to the guest. I think you can even expose fake flags to the guests and that qemu will emulate the flag behavior.

          This is with the default qemu settings.
          Host:

          processor : 0
          vendor_id : GenuineIntel
          cpu family : 6
          model : 15
          model name : Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz
          stepping : 11
          microcode : 0xb6
          cpu MHz : 2399.804
          cache size : 4096 KB
          physical id : 0
          siblings : 4
          core id : 0
          cpu cores : 4
          apicid : 0
          initial apicid : 0
          fpu : yes
          fpu_exception : yes
          cpuid level : 10
          wp : yes
          flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good nopl aperfmperf pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm lahf_lm dtherm tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority
          bogomips : 4799.60
          clflush size : 64
          cache_alignment : 64
          address sizes : 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual

          Guest:
          processor : 0
          vendor_id : GenuineIntel
          cpu family : 6
          model : 2
          model name : QEMU Virtual CPU version 1.4.1
          stepping : 3
          cpu MHz : 2400.120
          cache size : 4096 KB
          fdiv_bug : no
          hlt_bug : no
          f00f_bug : no
          coma_bug : no
          fpu : yes
          fpu_exception : yes
          cpuid level : 4
          wp : yes
          flags : fpu de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic mtrr pge mca cmov pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 syscall nx lm up pni cx16 hypervisor lahf_lm
          bogomips : 4800.24
          clflush size : 64
          power management:

          --
          Everything I write is lies, including this sentence.
          • (Score: 1) by jayjay.br on Sunday March 16 2014, @02:44AM

            by jayjay.br (1849) on Sunday March 16 2014, @02:44AM (#17044)

            You're absolutely correct about qemu. There are still remains of the emulation layer originally meant to be. Ring 3 stuff runs directly and ring 0 calls for the "hardware assisted emulation". For VMware though, is quite a different process, and it exposes almost every bit of the processor, except for the root mode privileged execution. This also makes it somewhat of a pain for migrating VMs among different families of processors.

            Nice read about this: http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/VMware_paravirtual ization.pdf [vmware.com]

    • (Score: 1) by cafebabe on Sunday March 16 2014, @04:03AM

      by cafebabe (894) on Sunday March 16 2014, @04:03AM (#17071) Journal

      That's easy. You won't be able to run a virtual machine on it. No virtualization, no problem.

      --
      1702845791×2
  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 16 2014, @12:33AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 16 2014, @12:33AM (#17018)

    Those in the know shed some light on this.

    Why would Intel do this? Who would demand such a "feature"?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 16 2014, @12:42AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 16 2014, @12:42AM (#17024)

      Who would demand such a "feature"?

      At a guess, I'd say the corporation in question is one who's name begins with an "M" and ends with a "t".

      • (Score: 0) by NullPtr on Monday March 17 2014, @12:50AM

        by NullPtr (3786) on Monday March 17 2014, @12:50AM (#17331) Journal

        No - the Midget corporation recently got one of its finest spokespeople to stand on a create of children's clothes and deny outright it had anything to do with this.

    • (Score: 2, Insightful) by bill_mcgonigle on Sunday March 16 2014, @05:04AM

      by bill_mcgonigle (1105) on Sunday March 16 2014, @05:04AM (#17089)

      Why would Intel do this? Who would demand such a "feature"?

      Hardware manufacturers. If you're, say, HTC, do you want the user that's fed up with his old phone to install the latest CyanogenMod or upgrade to a new phone?

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by omoc on Sunday March 16 2014, @09:55AM

      by omoc (39) on Sunday March 16 2014, @09:55AM (#17139)

      Intel will enter the mobile space this year since they started to make decent products. The upcoming products are actually incredibly good and I was really looking forward to them. When you can run *anything* on your x86 phone (including relatively simple Android updates) with decent performance people stop buying a new phone every year and that will hurt vendors. If performance is no reason to update your phone these days, its the Android update policies.

      So Intel just gives vendors the option of planned obsolescence so they can still sell the same number of phones when they start going with Intel SoCs.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 16 2014, @07:20PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 16 2014, @07:20PM (#17239)

      The answer, spelled out, begins with "Micro" and ends with "Soft" --- and the rest in the middle represents the entirety of the integrity and decency of the parties involved.

  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by Zyx Abacab on Sunday March 16 2014, @12:38AM

    by Zyx Abacab (3701) on Sunday March 16 2014, @12:38AM (#17022)

    TFA and the summary are jumping to conclusions: the presence of this kind of hook is not the same as locking out other operating systems. In fact, the article's source doesn't even mention anything about OS locking!

    The article also conflates microcode (Stefan Lang does a good job of pointing that out) and kernel hooks, suggesting that the author is full of hot air.

    We should trust Intel only as far as we can throw it but, without a source, TFA's claim is just as credible as me saying that SoylentNews is powered by children's tears.

    • (Score: 2) by unitron on Sunday March 16 2014, @02:52AM

      by unitron (70) on Sunday March 16 2014, @02:52AM (#17049) Journal

      Hey, those kids are always crying about something anyway, might as well make use of it.

      --
      something something Slashcott something something Beta something something
    • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Monday March 17 2014, @03:53PM

      by tangomargarine (667) on Monday March 17 2014, @03:53PM (#17669)

      If the possibility exists for them to use it that way, you can bet your ass that sooner or later they will do exactly that.

      --
      "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by AnythingGoes on Sunday March 16 2014, @01:50AM

    by AnythingGoes (3345) on Sunday March 16 2014, @01:50AM (#17033)
    The current Z2760 is a good example of "OS" locking.

    Other OSes can still run, but only Windows 8 get the full benefits (basically Intel provides reference drivers only for Windows 8 platforms), and things like various sleep states, etc, only exist using the specialized drivers. For the moment, it is still possible to reverse engineer the driver, but how long before all this is mandatory, and unable to be disabled.

    Also, the use of 32bit secure boot and UEFI blocks most linux distributions from booting, and even though secureboot can be disabled, 32bit UEFI Linux is almost unknown everywhere.
    The heat is slowing being turned up, and either we keep fighting for systems that can boot any OS, else we all end up like peons in an Apple-like market.

    This is just an extension of the same principle.
    • (Score: 5, Informative) by Angry Jesus on Sunday March 16 2014, @02:06AM

      by Angry Jesus (182) on Sunday March 16 2014, @02:06AM (#17038)

      For the moment, it is still possible to reverse engineer the driver, but how long before all this is mandatory, and unable to be disabled.

      Check out the Intel Software Guard Extensions [oddee.com] - it's like TPM on steroids.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 16 2014, @02:44AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 16 2014, @02:44AM (#17045)

      The heat is slowing being turned up, and either we keep fighting for systems that can boot any OS, else we all end up like peons in an Apple-like market.

      Apple-like? You can run Windows, Linux, BSD, etc. on Apple hardware.

      • (Score: 2) by AnythingGoes on Sunday March 16 2014, @03:40AM

        by AnythingGoes (3345) on Sunday March 16 2014, @03:40AM (#17059)

        Apple-like? You can run Windows, Linux, BSD, etc. on Apple hardware.

        Only on Mac OS X hardware, try that on IOS Hardware without going through hoops :)

    • (Score: 1) by rev0lt on Sunday March 16 2014, @03:25AM

      by rev0lt (3125) on Sunday March 16 2014, @03:25AM (#17055)

      The current Z2760 is a good example of "OS" locking.

      On what, exactly? In that regard, every CPU has "OS locking". Its called "supported operating systems"

        (basically Intel provides reference drivers only for Windows 8 platforms)

      Traditionally, Intel provides both schematics and reference drivers for commmon components. Its their product, it's up to you (as the consumer) to decide if you like it or not. I'd assume that writing GPU drivers from specs isn't - at all - easy (specially from Intel specs), but you could go much much worse. Want Linux support? Make it relevant in the target platform. Upto this point, it isn't - specially on the Atom line.

      • (Score: 5, Informative) by AnythingGoes on Sunday March 16 2014, @03:54AM

        by AnythingGoes (3345) on Sunday March 16 2014, @03:54AM (#17066)
        Atom Z2760 No Linux Support [h-online.com]
        Because even the graphics unit is not documented, so Linux developers have to reverse engineer it (worse than Nvidia since the entire component is on the chip and has no hardware snooping/breakout box). You will notice that for this specific processor, a lot of documentation is missing, as compared to the Core iX series.

        What I am saying here is that this is a departure from traditional Intel support, and it does not bode well for the future of any open society.

        As consumers, if you don't demand openness (or buy only from vendors that support it), then don't blame anyone if in future, all this openness is gone, and you can only buy special Windows CPU, with Windows Certified RAM, and Windows Certified storage that will not boot linux or work in other OSes.

        Just remember what the computing marketplace was like before the rise of commodity CPUs, RAM, storage where every company would want to extend their own "standard" to support special stuff...

        Just based on the rise of Apple and its closed ecosystem, this will be a bad sign for hobbyists/tinkerers/enthusiasts everywhere..
        • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Magic Oddball on Sunday March 16 2014, @11:28AM

          by Magic Oddball (3847) on Sunday March 16 2014, @11:28AM (#17152) Journal

          The problem is that as consumers, we're vastly outnumbered by the people that use their devices in a way that makes alternative OSes non-beneficial, and that therefore don't *care* whether they can do it or not. Our community is at the point where "we" have two real options:

          1. Hope that AMD remains profitable enough to keep going, committed to the cause, and isn't offered an ultimatum of "lock down your hardware or we won't use it" by the phone & laptop companies. (Those of us that aren't affluent also can only hope they won't offer the unlocked chips only for premium can't-afford-until-obsolete prices.)

          Frankly, I can't really trust AMD for long: I've seen far too many thriving companies be tripped up by poor management, supply issues, superior ad campaigns from the competition, etc. and fold, betray its old values or be bought out by a company that doesn't share them.

          2. Drum up easy-to-use, must-have amazing software & abilities for open hardware/software to offer that closed lacks, make sure it stays better than any proprietary copycats. We'd also need to make sure users seeking help or requesting improvements would be able to get friendly/helpful reactions, not the hostile "go code it yourself, luser" or dismissive "wontfix" that is common today.

          Given we'd need the cooperation of a huge chunk of people at every level of ability within the community... Well, I think that anyone that hangs out on Slashdot long enough to see the amount of vitriol aimed at non-technical people & non-STEM talents/fields to have much faith in that option. :-/

        • (Score: 1) by rev0lt on Sunday March 16 2014, @09:19PM

          by rev0lt (3125) on Sunday March 16 2014, @09:19PM (#17281)

          then don't blame anyone if in future, all this openness is gone, and you can only buy special Windows CPU, with Windows Certified RAM, and Windows Certified storage that will not boot linux or work in other OSes.

          This is so 2001. What you just described sounds like an Apple device. Or some Android devices.

          Just remember what the computing marketplace was like before the rise of commodity CPUs, RAM, storage where every company would want to extend their own "standard" to support special stuff

          You mean, before IBM PC? There were some custom extensions for ZX Spectrum, as well for C64, as an example.

          I get your point, but in the end the consumer has freedom of choice. And for the majority of consumers, they could care less about Linux support.

  • (Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 16 2014, @02:24AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 16 2014, @02:24AM (#17042)

    General Zod: [looking at the Presidential Seal on the floor of the Oval Office] I see you are practiced in worshiping things that fly. Good. Now, rise before Zod.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 16 2014, @02:31AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 16 2014, @02:31AM (#17043)

    Now if you do get a virus on your phone, you can sue them for enforcing a virus?

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by forsythe on Sunday March 16 2014, @03:56AM

      by forsythe (831) on Sunday March 16 2014, @03:56AM (#17068)

      Sure, as long as you haven't voided the warranty by doing anything grossly negligent* with your phone. After all, this state of the art security can only protect against so much.

      *Including, but not limited to, doing just about anything.

    • (Score: 2) by AnythingGoes on Sunday March 16 2014, @03:57AM

      by AnythingGoes (3345) on Sunday March 16 2014, @03:57AM (#17070)
      Nope, you can't sue them (because there will be binding arbitration clauses in your EULA), but they can sue you under DMCA if you try to get rid of the virus by hacking...
  • (Score: 1) by Subsentient on Sunday March 16 2014, @04:48AM

    by Subsentient (1111) on Sunday March 16 2014, @04:48AM (#17082) Homepage Journal

    Perhaps now, you will wake up and join my small choir of those screaming bloody murder at the top of our lungs over boot-locked phones and tablets! A nice thought.

    --
    "It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti