4 ms·

This is definitely a major concern. I'm sure that it will be ameliorated as more high-performance ARM chips hit the market and some provide open bootloaders or

This is definitely a major concern. I'm sure that it will be ameliorated as more high-performance ARM chips hit the market and some provide open bootloaders or have them written by a community. I want an ARM laptop like nobody's business, and I love my chromebook for its ability to run arbitrary linux executables. The trend of portable ARM workstations looks super promising, but if these entries are hardlocked to Windows, then they are complete non-starters.

ethbro 9y ago
Or, on this flipside, this creates a much bigger market for high performance ARM machines.
rbanffy 9y ago
> if these entries are hardlocked to Windows, then they are complete non-starters. Now imagine your machine hit by ransomware and you being unable to boot it from a known clean OS...
- ferbivore 9y ago
  Nice image, but reinstalling Windows from signed media is fairly easy on the ARM Surface tablets [1][2]. All modern ARM devices, including Android and iOS ones, have a recovery mode of some sort you can trivially access. I can't imagine Microsoft would release any new ones without a similar system. [1]: https://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-gb/support/warranty-service-and-recovery/refresh-or-reset-surface-rt#media https://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-gb/support/warranty-ser... [2]: https://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-us/support/warranty-service-and-recovery/downloadablerecoveryimage https://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-us/support/warranty-ser...
- ravenstine 9y ago
  > Now imagine your machine hit by ransomware and you being unable to boot it from a known clean OS... ... and then you buy a new one? The last time I got ransomware was 2008 – while visiting a warez site. For me, and I imagine for most people, the frequency at which you will replace your computer is greater than the frequency that you will get ransomware. Best to throw the thing out and start fresh, making sure your photos and docs are backed up elsewhere.
  - rbanffy 9y ago
    Tell that to the next company that has to recover a thousand desktops... The last time a hundred companies were hit with ransomware, disabling tens of thousands of desktops was... Yesterday.
jhoechtl 9y ago
AMD mobile will be the future alternative. Just in time.
- zanny 9y ago
  Unless you mean their foray into ARM chips, their x86 parts have just as much an untrustable control coprocessor that nobody can audit or disable in their PSP, and are unlikely to support open firmware like coreboot either.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
pjmlp 9y ago
Would you have them hardlocked to OEM UNIX-like variant instead? Because that is what will happen, as netbooks and Android have already shown.

ethbro 9y ago

Or, on this flipside, this creates a much bigger market for high performance ARM machines.

rbanffy 9y ago

> if these entries are hardlocked to Windows, then they are complete non-starters. Now imagine your machine hit by ransomware and you being unable to boot it from a known clean OS...

ferbivore 9y ago
Nice image, but reinstalling Windows from signed media is fairly easy on the ARM Surface tablets [1][2]. All modern ARM devices, including Android and iOS ones, have a recovery mode of some sort you can trivially access. I can't imagine Microsoft would release any new ones without a similar system. [1]: https://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-gb/support/warranty-service-and-recovery/refresh-or-reset-surface-rt#media https://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-gb/support/warranty-ser... [2]: https://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-us/support/warranty-service-and-recovery/downloadablerecoveryimage https://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-us/support/warranty-ser...
ravenstine 9y ago
> Now imagine your machine hit by ransomware and you being unable to boot it from a known clean OS... ... and then you buy a new one? The last time I got ransomware was 2008 – while visiting a warez site. For me, and I imagine for most people, the frequency at which you will replace your computer is greater than the frequency that you will get ransomware. Best to throw the thing out and start fresh, making sure your photos and docs are backed up elsewhere.
- rbanffy 9y ago
  Tell that to the next company that has to recover a thousand desktops... The last time a hundred companies were hit with ransomware, disabling tens of thousands of desktops was... Yesterday.

jhoechtl 9y ago

AMD mobile will be the future alternative. Just in time.

zanny 9y ago
Unless you mean their foray into ARM chips, their x86 parts have just as much an untrustable control coprocessor that nobody can audit or disable in their PSP, and are unlikely to support open firmware like coreboot either.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

pjmlp 9y ago

Would you have them hardlocked to OEM UNIX-like variant instead? Because that is what will happen, as netbooks and Android have already shown.