Intel will get out of the traditional desktop motherboard business
-40hz
If AMD have any sense they will clean up.-Carol Haynes
AMD is experiencing its own
financial problems lately. Sales are off 25%. Don't expect them to rock the boat.
Actually if Intel and AMD (and other major manufacturers) simply refused to produce UEFI motherboards that give MS the key to the lock, or even go back to standard BIOS board production only, it would force MS to respond, especially now Windows 8 is in the wild and can't be installed on SecureBoot systems without a valid key. If MS play hardball it will be sales of Win 8 that will suffer.
True - but "so not gonna happen" as my niece would say. Both Intel and AMD are hoping Windows 8 will be a big win and spark a buying spree. Neither can hurt Microsoft without hurting themselves. Expect no backbone from those two.
Seriously where are the class action law suits in all this? The EU caused problems for MS because IE and WMP were included in Windows, this is far worse as it effectively removes competitors from selling product at all!
Microsoft has a loophole in that incorporating UEFI is (technically) left up to the hardware manufacturers. Exactly how "voluntary" it is in practice is another matter - and one that will need a court ruling to finally decide. But thats something that can (and likely will) be dragged out for
decades if it ever comes to that.
But even more to the point, most governments and industry regulatory bodies have now become aware of just how powerful an open hardware platform is. And how potentially threatening it can be to the powers that be - as Anonymous, Pirate Bay, and Wikileaks have repeatedly demonstrated.
Wanting more control over the hardware (and lacking the constitutional authority to get it) I see a trend by most governments to look the other way at anything that tries to rein in computer users.
Lack of safeguards to privacy, warrantless 'fishing expeditions' courtesy of bullied ISPs and database owners, kiddie-porn hysteria campaigns, allowing ridiculous IP lawsuits, granting equally ludicrous patents, allowing ongoing abuse of copyright laws and DMCA takedown notices...
No...I don't expect to see much relief from government on this score.
Back in the Regan
Error Era, political and business interests discovered you could much more easily advance your agenda by the
selective enforcement of laws. Ronald Regan was a master at pressuring the U.S. Justice Department
not to enforce any laws his administration disagreed with.
And I worked out quite well for him and his cronies.
I think you'll see the same thing happen here. And I don't think the EU will be above it.