Antony Stone - 23.08.18, 00:04: > On Wednesday 22 August 2018 at 23:32:28, Martin Steigerwald wrote: > > Don Wright - 22.08.18, 21:56: > > > El Reg has [1]published a disagreement between a Debian maintainer > > > and Intel over changes to license terms in the latest CPU > > > microcode updates. The added terms (see comments) appear to > > > attach liability to both Debian and mirror sites if the end user > > > violates certain new restrictions regarding benchmarking. Debian > > > has chosen not to play. > > > > > > [1] > > > https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/08/21/intel_cpu_patch_licence/ > > > > Rant opened: > > > > /me prays for the end of proprietary CPUs. > > <good reasoning snipped> > > > Speed over quality. – Stop it already. > > > > Rant closed. > > Personally, I agree with you, but just me and you as individual > persons isn't going to make any difference.
If people thought this throughout all of human history, we would not have computers at all. And also still think the Earth is flat and in a center of the world / universe. But I agree that just blaming them is not helpful. Blaming hands over control to others, due to feeling helpless. It basically is an expression of helplessness. So I completely get any feeling of helplessness here. Intel seems like a giant that seems almost impossible to move in a direction regarding that topic that benefits users in a substantial way. AMD might move a little bit easier, but its still huge. AMD opened up graphic chip documentation and drivers to a some extent and other hardware manufacturers work more open to. So change can happen. However at this point in time I just ranted (clearly marked) and I did not even choose to invest any further effort in making a change. Actually I felt helpless too. And as I did not yet release this feeling completely, I wrote this rant. One thing would be to start a petition and let the media advertise it so… hopefully many will sign. I have much more important things in my life right now, so maybe I just leave it at my rant and at aiming to avoid buying new Intel systems or have new Intel systems bought for me, cause it is always a few people starting a new movement, starting to bring forth a change. And as AMD may be somewhat better, not not very much, I may avoid those as well. > Intel will only change their practices when the *majority* of their > customers decide that "enough is enough", but unfortunately: All changes start small. For a majority of customers to decide "enough is enough", some will have to start. And then some more, and some more, and some more. I claim that any major, lasting (!) change in human history worked that way. > 1) Intel sell very very few CPUs to individuals who are able to > express their personal preferences and can choose to buy other CPUs > instead > > 2) the big-name laptop and server manufacturers who *do* buy the > majority of Intel's CPUs don't get the slightest whiff of any bad > publicity to alert the general public to the dangers lurking inside > the chips they're passing on inside their shiny new products Maybe not yet, but if this publicity gets more widespread over time… then they care. Companies, even largest companies have shown that they care, if pressure is huge enough. Sure some rant in a mailing list archive probably does not gain much attention. But well, I even saw it that Jonathan Corbet referenced a post of mine to LKML in an LWN article, so you never know. > 3) the vast majority of computer users either don't buy their own > computers (corporate employees) and/or don't have a clue about > microcode vulnerabilities (I'd suggest that's a five nines percentage > of computer users in general), and therefore aren't going to boycott > Intel's (or anyone else's) closed designs because they simply don't > know what the question is. Well that one of the reasons I did not request a new laptop with Intel CPU and chipset yet. I may at some point – in case there are still no better alternatives in the sense of freedom and security –, but for now I wait… I bet its challenging to build your own laptops and open hardware projects are still mostly moving slowly, but there can be a shift in the future. > So, in summary: > > - you make a good point > > - as many people as you can possibly contact might well agree with > you > > - it won't make the slightest difference > > This disappoints me, but as a realist, I try to accept the obstacles > in the path to (my own and other people's) enlightenment, and I > believe that banging one's head against a brick wall is sooner or > later bad for the health :( I surely get that. And I totally get that it is important to move beyond ranting about it. Essentially what I learned during learning to let go is: To change something, it is important to first accept it, hold on to it, and then change it. Resistance, denial or refusal is not helpful to effect change. I know all this… and I am in that human experience too. I felt like ranting, even knowing it is not all that helpful in itself, and well then I did. And yes, its important to move beyond it and I bet I may just release on that topic as well to move towards a position that is more powerful than remaining in helplessness. Thanks, -- Martin _______________________________________________ Dng mailing list [email protected] https://mailinglists.dyne.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/dng
