tpm/secure boot are good things
you want to run something else, put the keys in the uefi
bleating about the end of computing as we know it because of tpm is… ignorant
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Microsoft would love to, Apple is already 90% of the way there and outside of the tech enthusiasts who know better is still widely beloved.
With the majority of the upcoming generation not knowing what a file directory is, I don’t see the situation getting any better.
Even if the issue is overblown at the moment, anti freedom-in-computing is certainly a very worrying trend. I truly believe there will come a day when you are not enabled to run arbitrary code on your machine.
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I’m not a big fan of statistics but if we have any indicator to go off of it shows exactly that. Non-tech people just use computers as a tool. They don’t really care how locked-down it is as long as they’re able to watch Netflix.
My hope is that the PC gaming and Linux communities keep computing freedom alive, both with the ability to swap out hardware and the ability to install apps from outside the App Store.
But unless legislation is introduced to prevent it, I believe we’re just on a slow creep toward the Mac becoming an iPad with a built-in keyboard. Samsung/Google will make fun of Apple but then do the same thing a couple years after the drama has died down, and they’ll claim it’s for your own safety just like Apple does. And MS will probably wait about a decade to let the “conspiracies” fade away, and then make it so the only option is the Microsoft Store because at that point everyone will have tuned-out and it’ll just be the norm.
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Anyone else remember Horse Armor ? Remember the complaints we had back then? And the slew of people saying it was nothing to worry about? Now look where we are. a lot of gaming is now virtual unregulated gambling aimed squarely at children, raising a new generation of young addicted gamblers so companies can steal their money.
Always look at the worst thing you think these companies could do, and then assume it will be worse than that. Because that’s what they do. They don’t care about you, or me, they only care about taking our money.
So yes, I fully expect they will be banning machines at the hardware level, and forcibly manipulating our software, and even going so far as to lock our own data down, if they think they can make a buck doing it. I have zero faith in any of them doing the ‘right’ thing without being forced into it.
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Game Pass Ultimate
Playstation Now
Apple Arcade
Google Play Pass
How much longer until all gaming is just a bunch of different subscription services?
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*cough Steam!!! GOG!!! *cough
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Yes I’m aware other platforms exist, for now.
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To be fair, I was very surprised when Win10 was released, and Not subscription.
They fleece xboxers for 15 a month or whatever.
Why settle for 150 every few years, if they could have trippled it and taken 10-15 a month for Windows…
Not sure which bits they will stop working when subscription lapses. DNS?
Need to cut the cord on game services like tv… but first need to buy physical media reading devices again…
Depends on who controls the keys to the kingdom. If you are allowed to self sign then yes it is a good thing. If you are not, it means you can only run whatever the key owner says you can run.
Also, the frogs Windows users are being boiled so slowly I doubt many will have any desire to move to Linux before the walls are completely up. Microsoft are raising walls around their garden, but as long as the gates remains open, why bother amirite?
To be clear, I have nothing against walled gardens or Microsoft moving Windows in that direction. I do have a small bone to pick with people deluding themselves that this will be the last straw pushing them to Linux. Look buddy, you didn’t care five years ago, it is very likely you care even less now.
Which is completely fine of course, you do you, just don’t threaten to switch to Linux. You didn’t then so you won’t now. Either take the leap or don’t.
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Very true. Perhaps you have heard of a concept called ‘the last straw’ ? - for me, this has been a building up problem for many years, and everyone has limits they will not cross.
I am one of those odd people who actually follows through on his promises. For example, I made Blizzard an ultimatum many years ago when they released Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3 - I told them I would NEVER give them another penny for a game if they did not get rid of the real-money-auction-house and enable the game to be played without having an internet connection. And I made the same demand for Starcraft 2 in regards to requiring an online connection to play the game.
As it turns out - Blizzard did fix Diablo 3 to my satisfaction, but they did not fix Starcraft 2. Guess what the last Blizzard game I paid any money for was? Yep - Diablo 2. Blizzard lost my business and got put on my eternal ‘Naughty’ list. I will never do business with that company again. And this has not been an idle threat. Blizzard has not gotten a penny out of me for a game for the last 13 years. And i’ve even gone so far as to ban their free-to-play games from my list as well because of their loot box gambling in their free to play stuff.
Windows has reached that same point for me with Windows 11. I will NEVER switch to that operating system if they don’t stop taking these sorts of actions, AND they must roll back the steps they have made concerning privacy invasion, advertising, and their upcoming TPM requirements. Those must all go away - or I will never use a Windows operating systems from 11 onwards.
Will that cost me money and access to some software I currently use? Very likely. But for me, this was the proverbial last straw. They’ve been bending straws for years, and windows 11 just bent my last one.
If you have TPM module you can turn it on and still run linux. Or turn it off.
9/10 PCs ship with and will only ever run windows, making harder for malware to infect the machine via boot loaded is a good thing. For those who want to run Linux, either turn the TPM off or use a distro with signed boot.
This isn’t preventing you from doing anything unless you’re exceedingly lazy. Its a tool like a hammer or screwdriver, use it or don’t…
Eh?
I have a windows machine for games and to support #dayjob. FreeBSD box, Linux box, a few Pis and a bunch of Macs here mate.
I was being paid to administer linux 25 years ago…
For how long will you be able to do that though? We cannot assume the answer is forever.
Imagine AMD and Intel releasing CPUs that can only be loaded with Windows - anything else just won’t boot. Sure, you won’t buy that, decent SIs won’t buy that, but all the Dells and Lenovos of the world… They would definitely buy that for a dollar! And even more.
Yeah, so you obviously made the leap ages ago. 80+% of all desktops are still stuck on Windows exclusive though, that part of the post was more directed to those. 
Tired to hear n00bs boldly proclaiming their last straw only to still run Windows 5 years later. Get off my friggin lawn! 
See above. There is no reason to wait - if you plan to stick around on Windows, get Windows 11 already. If you plan to jump ship, install Linux today. Now. Waiting around will only make the transition harder.
If you plan to stick around on Windows 10, well, support ends in 41 months and 7 days roughly. So I would start thinking about a migration plan already.
Heh. You don’t need to give me ‘ultimatums’. Everyone must decide when/how for themselves. I’ve already got a plan going for my own transition. That’s for me to do. I don’t need anyone pushing me, I do plenty of pushing on myself already.
Companies I have banned from my life are "Activision, Blizzard, and Electronic Arts. And very soon Microsoft Windows will be in that list and i’ll never use anything from them again. (needless to say, I don’t use anything from Apple either, that company is really terrible for their abusive customer policies and their actions against the right-to-repair ideal).
Electronic Arts has earned their place in my permanent ban list through their continual abuse of gamers and the gaming landscape for many many years now. Activision and Blizzard are in the same boat, and now Windows is being tossed in there as well.
Don’t pay companies to abuse you.
Yep, though the only one setting the ultimatum is you and possibly Microsoft. Though my point still stands - when you gotta do something painful, JEDI - Just Effin Do It!
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I remember way back trying Linux and the community wasn’t helpfull at all. Kinda offput me to keep on trying to learn it or asking any questions. So windows it’s been since and I will keep using it.
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But then again I learned long ago if I can’t fix it then it just goes to someone who can. You won’t see me here having a pc problem and trying to get people to troubleshoot it for free. I understand that people spend a lot of money and time to be expert in there fields and giving free labor might be objectionable to some people including me.
But at the time being new to pc’s and Linux being open source but hard to learn and it being kinda “against control of the man” like what is being discussed in this thread, I thought that experienced Linux users would welcome new users. I found that not to be the case. Rather a snobbish attitude about it. I think that hurt Linux in the long term.
It gave Microsoft almost complete dominince in the field. So you guys think of that when you complain about what is happening now.
But I have seen that attitude in the tech industry since I started paying attention to it. Back in the 80’s the idea of unions in the tech industry was generally objected to by the new tech workers. There idea of unions from what I gather was that they were for the working class and they were above that, the new professional class and didn’t need them. They were going to be the new Gates and the like. Some of them made it big, most did not.
Fast forward to the late 90’s. It was hitting the news that many tech workers were getting sh**t canned once they were used up. I was sitting in a hot plant and mentioned what was happeing to the tech workers and that I had empathy for them. Well the blowback was immediate and harsh. Those guys remembered the comments that the 80’s generation were making about labor and unions. The comments from people in that room was generaly along the the line of "Well f’ them. They thought that they didn’t need unions and they were for the lower working class’s but they found out didn’t they.
Fast forward to the early 2000’s. I was sitting at a light rail station on a bench while my wife attended church(I guess I am a heathen). Well next to me a man sit down waiting for the train and we started talking. Found out that he had worked for the big names, Microsoft and Apple. But he was there trying to get a government job because he had no pension, nothing and being locked out of the tech industry by advancing age. He was a nice guy and all but he would of been one of the 80’s guys and was suffering the consequences of that generations decisions. I thought about all that as he was talking to me but never expressed it.
I don’t know if this rant is going to cause me problems here but I got a little bit of -
Oppositional Defiant Disorder - YouTube.
Comes from getting old and a lifetime of being working class in a harsh working envirement.
What does this even mean? Macs aren’t “walled gardens”…
I have two phones. One of which has a tonne of bloat – duplicate competing apps that you aren’t allowed to uninstall, a forced install of games like candy crush that I could later uninstall but the option to not install it initially was grayed out, multiple voice assistants that I never want to use but don’t have a straightforward “turn off forever” button – and one that doesn’t, and allowed me to uninstall all of the default apps that came preinstalled and has a toggle to turn off the voice assistant in the settings menu. The latter is my iPhone. The former is Android.
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There’s no indication of this happening, and if it does you can sign your own bootloader and upload your keys by design.
Thanks, that does take away most of my concerns. From what I heard the key signing process would be limited to a few companies (those who develop UEFI firmware + motherboard vendors, pretty much) - This would mean those are the only actors that are able to create secure boot chains.
If the boot chain process is open for everyone though, I see no real problem with it. Just pick a root vendor you trust and use that until they get hacked, then switch to the next one and so on. Should provide a good sense of security for 10 years or so.
… What, did you think all it took for security to work was to wave a magic wand and all of a sudden it’s secure?