Eh, just means it isn’t plug and play. Once you have the hardware, you are the admin.
It may get tougher, but it’ll never be impossible.
How long do we have before PCs get locked bootloaders and corporations ban installation of "non-approved" software? (for context: Google is restricting sideloading worldwide on Android ETA 2027)
Submitted 1 day ago by DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works to nostupidquestions@lemmy.world
Comments
HexesofVexes@lemmy.world 16 minutes ago
AdrianTheFrog@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
For phones Google gets to decide, as an os maker. For PCs, there are multiple OSses so hardware manufacturers get to decide.
I personally don’t see AMD or Intel doing that anytime soon, and if they do, at least Arm and Risc-V are making some good progress in the desktop space
Aimeeloulm@feddit.uk 4 hours ago
To all those people saying this will never happen because people wouldn’t accept or tolerate it ree living in a different reality, sorry to burst your bubble and faith in your fellow himans but…most people will just whinge whine cuss and then go do something else, people today have no guts in them to fight back and to lazy too, they expect others to do all the work for them, but wont lift a finger except to moan and whine about shit.
Long story short we are fucked, absolutely fucked, we…those that would/will do something are few and far between now, people aka the masses are used to being beaten down and being told to put up and shut up, just get on with it, so we few just have to look after ourselves, our families and friends, get through life best way we can, we be a small pocket of resistance but thats all sadly 🥺
Kolanaki@pawb.social 3 hours ago
They’d have to completely kill the ability to build your own machine (the whole “IBM compatability” thing) and I don’t see that happening when almost every business and factory uses their own custom shit for specific niche reasons.
toddestan@lemmy.world 17 minutes ago
Not really. The pieces are already in place with UEFI and Secure Boot. All that would need to happen would be to force Secure Boot to be enabled, and only preload keys for an approved list of operating systems. With that, your fancy new motherboard may not be able to boot and run the OS of your choice.
RedFrank24@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
Absolutely not, that would never happen. Why? Because there’s a load of stuff that runs on Windows that is ancient and only exists as legacy software and never receives updates.
If anything, Windows is the last operating system that will have locked bootloaders, because if they do, there’s gonna be some bank somewhere in the world suing them because their ancient counting software was originally made for Windows 3.0 back in the day and Microsoft has had to build their entire operating system around making sure that software continues to run.
NikkiDimes@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
Not to mention there will always be methods and hackers jailbreaking devices. Even Windows 11’s TPM requirements have been defeated, anything else will be too.
xePBMg9@lemmynsfw.com 2 hours ago
I’m not an expert. But microsoft controls secure boot signing, right?
Microsoft is also involved in setting standards and influences manufacturers. I feel like the future where secure boot is the only option and were Microsoft holds the keys is likely.
quick_snail@feddit.nl 9 hours ago
You’re describing Secure Boot. It happened years ago.
And, btw, the Android thing also doesn’t affect anyone without gapps. Chill out.
nibbler@discuss.tchncs.de 9 hours ago
And, btw, the Android thing also doesn’t affect anyone without gapps. Chill out.
so only 99% are affected, that really calms me down.
Manny services that are connected to finance/payment require gapps, car sharing, banking etc.
quick_snail@feddit.nl 9 hours ago
Don’t install gapps. And ffs don’t use banking on insecure devices anyway
Dumhuvud@programming.dev 3 hours ago
You’re describing Secure Boot.
Secure Boot is literally configurable. You can create your own key and sign whatever you want with it. See sbctl.
xePBMg9@lemmynsfw.com 2 hours ago
If you change platform keys, it looks to me like you can brick your system if hardware component drivers that execute during boot are signed by microsoft keys.
Microsoft will make sure many of their partners sign hardware drivers with their keys to be windows 11 certified of course. No other reason.
They will encourage manufacturers to only allow secure boot in UEFI. Then at some point they will stop signing UEFI loaders, like shim, that linux distros rely on to boot.
quick_snail@feddit.nl 9 hours ago
When I was tasked with buying laptopa for a company, I made sure to test Linux compatibility on every machine. If the model didn’t support Linux, we didn’t buy it.
Most of the devs were windows users, but there were enough devs and sysadmins that preferred Linux that it just made more sense to only buy hardware that supports both windows and Linux.
Corporate pressure would never allow such lockdown in the market
okamiueru@lemmy.world 9 hours ago
There is no requirement for it, and can be disabled
SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org 53 minutes ago
For now.
quick_snail@feddit.nl 9 hours ago
Exactly.
anothernobody@lemmy.world 1 day ago
With Linux being the standard for server systems there is no way to force locked bootloaders everywhere without making the whole web and a lot of companies collapse. But I expect more limitations regarding desktop systems. It’s hard to tell at this point because it’s a complex issue, not only from an economical but also political point of view (Mass surveillance).
SendMePhotos@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Don’t I own this hardware? Can I not do what I want with it?
BroiledShit@reddthat.com 23 hours ago
No, because fuck you. Ownership is for pussies, do you really want to own what you buy? Just buy a new one if you have problems. my hope is that we eventually get to a point where you cant even build your own PC. Gaming PCs all built by Nvidia woth the latest Geforce built in to the motherboard. With a subscription fee to use it, im talking cheap like only $20/month. and then in a year it can sleep gently in a landfill. Oh and a feature that sets your house on fire and mangles your genitals. and if you try to turn that off, you get sued. it was in the TOS, just dont use a computer if that bothers you, shithead. the future is bright.
anothernobody@lemmy.world 1 day ago
You own the hardware but not the software.
sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 23 hours ago
Without software access it is useless until you are able to jailbreak it.
Which is technically a breach of contract at the very least and could be deemed IP theft by a brain dead USian judge.
So you can't even commercialize your solution because capitalism works 1 way.
otter@lemmy.ca 22 hours ago
Your account is marked as a bot by the way, you can fix that in your user settings
anothernobody@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
I already did, but thanks nonethless.
cley_faye@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
It’s been tried a bit before, but didn’t get through. The current situation with secure boot is worrying, because we’re one manufacturer playing ball away from it to become a reality.
I’d like to say there’s strong incentive to not do that, but it seems that logic alone would not stop this kind of push. And weirdly enough, even financial risk might not be enough, as we’ve seen baffling decisions made these last few months.
The main saving graces is that there are more than two manufacturer for motherboard, and as far as I know, patent lockdown and secrecy isn’t as big on PC hardware than on mobile boards, so it might be easier to escape such lockdown. But fully locked down systems under external control is clearly where some people wants us to go.
brax@sh.itjust.works 11 hours ago
Users are getting dumber by the day. The people arguing back to me about “this is a you problem” when I mention reasons why device ownership is important is way too fucking high.
This is why you gatekeep hobbies. Keep the dipshits out so they don’t become the masses that ruin what you enjoy.
BackgrndNoize@lemmy.world 9 hours ago
Exactly, if I like something I try to keep it on the down low, or only spread it in circles where I know it will be similarly appreciated, the moment a majority of the people are into something, that thing will now get subjected to external influences that require it to be liked by everyone and most people are mediocre so the thing moves towards mediocrity
BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world 17 hours ago
Microsoft is already starting to lay the groundwork with their CPU and TPM 2.0 requirements.
Apple has been doing this for a long time, though there are ways to get around it on MacOS, for now.
On PC, the answer is Linux. For mobile devices, things are looking more bleak.
Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 17 hours ago
Linux won’t be an option if the boot loader is locked. I think Linux is just about popular enough that options should remain but they might become reduced unless it becomes more popular than it currently is.
nul9o9@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 hours ago
I’d imagine not every mobo manufacturer will play ball with whoever mandates a locked bootloader.
Right now, we have google and apple with a duopoly on mobile devices.
derpgon@programming.dev 16 hours ago
Linux is heavily used on servers. Losing server sector means a huge chunk of revenue.
theparadox@lemmy.world 13 hours ago
The situation is actually quite awful. I remember when TPM was palladium and there were apocalyptic talks in tech conferences about it being the end of general purpose computers. The idea that your computer could veto what it was used for.
The backlash only set them back a few decades apparently. Everyone forgot and now it’s a literal requirement for the latest Windows and in two months they’ll stop supporting the old Windows…
olafurp@lemmy.world 11 hours ago
Next phone I get I’ll get fairphone and check the market for an alternative OS at that time. This might be the push that the Linux phone community needs to make it proper and good.
We currently need a KDE phone that they sell where I can buy a KDE phone and support them that way.
The pieces are coming together for Linux notably:
- SPA support instead of apps.
- Waydroid
- Core components such as calling, sim card actions, recording, speakers can be provided by fairphone via drivers.
I’m getting pretty sick of Google and other corpos locking down Android so fuck them, third best phone OS will have to do and I’ll do banking in the mobile browser page.
SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org 45 minutes ago
I just bought the cheapest fairphone I could get to replace my old pixel. Now it’s time to try proper linux on mobile for the first time. I’m excited!
SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world 7 hours ago
Never
It isn’t gonna happen
The enshittification would be too much, and people would gravitate twoards the more usable tech.
People liked Apple and Google because they offered simplified UX that still let people access what they wanted, as soon as people feel too restricted they will stop using the tech.
This trend is independent and unimpeded by the legality of the tech.
ameancow@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
It will happen when the major companies produce some kind of magical formula that literally everyone wants and are willing to sacrifice freedoms just to have it.
THIS is the reason they are chasing AI so hard and trying to make it to AGI before anyone is ready or prepared. They want everyone to have their magical fairy whispering product placements in their ear and charming them into simulated relationships so that the users abandon all thought of having personal control and freedom to train the things themselves, to install their own upgrades, etc.
The next major “thing” we all carry is going to be some kind of AI that can see through your view of the environment and can whisper to you privately various simulated thoughts, observations and relevant info about the things around you. As well of course as “Hey look, Kohl’s is having a 35% off sale on jackets, didn’t you need one?”
This is their dream, this is why they have put so much into the tech. People are going to gobble it up if they can ever get there, and with that goes all semblance of autonomy, freedom or independant thought.
ArnaulttheGrim@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
Call me when they start bringing in legitimacy between understanding how the brain actually functions and relate it to how computation systems actually work.
The current models STRUGGLE with basic speech comprehension that humans are able to nail with significantly higher precision (Just look at LMLs that struggle with dialects between large regions like the US). Use a slang word in a modern search, or use a common definition vs the literal, AI stumbles and fails frequently. Having worked on models as someone whose job was in AI, the algorithms STRUGGLE even understanding basic concepts such as ‘Yes’ and ‘Yeah’ being interchangeable without dedicated training. There is a reason that it used to be countless humans sitting in a room teaching a machine how to do something with basic boolean values.
Current Automated Intelligence (I refuse to call it Narrow AI as it diminishes the term AI) will simply be the way of things for a long time until these companies can build trust in them and are able to actually roll out reliable items that: 1) Dont make up data. 2) Can verify data on its own. 3) Can actually understand people when they type/say something.
True AI or what they are calling AGI nowadays is a pipe dream similar to what 3D/Augmented Reality/Holographic concepts are. There will be spikes of innovation followed by periods of stagnation. The only difference is that right now current AI models are useful in the corporate world which will lead to shorter periods of stagnation comparably.
calamityjanitor@lemmy.world 1 day ago
It’s called secure boot and it’s been around for over 10 years now.
SkavarSharraddas@gehirneimer.de 23 hours ago
And the first iteration was much more locked down, only got changed after public complaints.
mugita_sokiovt@discuss.online 22 hours ago
I think that’s because of GPL-2, which had allowance (unintentional) for Tivoization, which is what Secure Boot is a form of from what I read. I might be wrong on that, though.
GPL-3 fixed the Tivoization, though.
kittenzrulz123@lemmy.blahaj.zone 13 hours ago
I would say if/when PCs move over to ARM than we very well may see the same issues mobile devices have. There is a severe lack of Linux compatibility due to proprietary drivers, sometimes no drivers at all, no software support, and no device trees.
Vanilla_PuddinFudge@infosec.pub 11 hours ago
there is another… but, it may be RISCy
ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
Also ARM is way less standard. While UEFI does exist on ARM, most just use some custom bootloader. And let’s not forget how ARM is protecting its Mali Linux drivers.
PrettyFlyForAFatGuy@feddit.uk 13 hours ago
I have the ubuntu 25 concept installed on my snapdragon HP Omnibook 14
Other than a few software hiccups you would expect of a “concept build” it works almost perfectly and is now my daily driver. Actually getting the OS on the machine was pretty easy too, it has something akin to a bios. the process isn’t all that different
kittenzrulz123@lemmy.blahaj.zone 12 hours ago
Well yes many arm PCs do work, im just saying eventually they will be locked down
brucethemoose@lemmy.world 9 hours ago
Fortunately, Microsoft is too incompetent to pull this off on Windows.
They tried. See the metro app push in Windows 8+. But it’s kind of incredible how much they permanently bungled it.
And if Windows doesn’t do it, hardware makers aren’t really interested in that sort of thing.
Stuff like SteamOS does worry me a tiny bit. It’s obviously fine now, but I can see a future where, say, Valve (or any hardware seller with some kind of successful storefront) starts to not like rising competition on their own stuff.
Evotech@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
I mean we already have that with Nintendo, Xbox and PlayStation
MuttMutt@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
And these devices are controlled both hardware and software by an oem.
PC’s are hardware and software agnostic. Some OEM’s have done weird stuff with the hardware and bios/uefi to prevent users from upgrading and don’t some things but as long as you can buy a motherboard, gpu, ram, and other parts is going to be tough to convince three manufacturers to prevent an end user from using it how they see fit.
DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 6 hours ago
SteamOS
SteamDeck doesn’t even have secure boot in the BIOS lol
MonkeyBrawler@lemmy.world 7 hours ago
Microsoft is incompetent, and Valve is concerning? Lol
ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net 15 hours ago
Too late to do this for PCs. You already have Linux laptop providers and Linux distros supported by corporations. Most of the components have multiple providers. You will be able to source “unlocked” hardware from somewhere.
The problem with mobile is that the hardware is too complicated for open source projects to handle. Many have tried, all have failed. So far. Hopefully we will finally see something usable come out of projects like PinePhone and PostmarketOS.
SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org 47 minutes ago
Fairphone devs contribute drives to linux. Their phones are among the best supported devices for postmarketos and ubuntu touch and so on.
GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 15 hours ago
Too late to do this for PCs.
let me tell you about this little thing called windows 11.
I know for a fact that this is exactly where compute is going, just look at the aggressive moves that MS has been making over the last 15-25 years.
it starts with requiring an always on connection, and ends with hardware lockout like Mac has.
sure Linux will be an option… but for how much longer? all the old devs are retiring and the new ones…god help us. they want to rewrite it like any greenhorn, and they want to use…rust??!
I give it 10-15 years before hardware locks out Linux, and Linux is dying.
I’m a Linux user btw, so don’t think I’m a MS or Mac fan.
StupidBrotherInLaw@lemmy.world 13 hours ago
Linux is dying
I definitely am not getting this impression, especially with the recent boost in popularity, but this isn’t my field of expertise. Any reading you can recommend to get an old man up to speed?
Tuuktuuk@sopuli.xyz 14 hours ago
Moat of servers run Linux, and servers are just computers.
vane@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
Just to add on top of that I think Linux will be good as long as Torvalds is alive. After that who knows what would happen. They might add binaries to mainstream kernel that lock you out and who can stop them ? We are lucky we live in times where we have a choice.
Vanilla_PuddinFudge@infosec.pub 11 hours ago
all have failed
Here I sit, an eternal failure.
- posted from my Oneplus 6T on PostmarketOS
MinFapper@startrek.website 6 hours ago
$1M carries the weight of about 1M signatures, which is to say… not much.
InFerNo@lemmy.ml 11 hours ago
What are these Linux laptop providers going to sell if they can’t order anything from the factory that lets them change the software because reasons
ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net 10 hours ago
I’m saying that there’s enough laptop providers and enough different factories to maintain supply of unlocked hardware. You don’t have to worry about locked CPU/GPUs, only about locked bootloaders which have a lot of different providers. With mobiles it’s easier to lock because it’s all packed into SOCs and you don’t have as much choice for latest hardware.
Tuuktuuk@sopuli.xyz 14 hours ago
Has Fairphone failed in this regard, in your opinion?
Tywele@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 hours ago
What makes mobile hardware more complicated than desktop hardware?
dustyData@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
It’s a long history lesson. But the gist is that IBM made an architecture that allowed for modular LEGO style construction of computers. They were assholes and tried to make it lock down by keeping software secret and proprietary, but it was so popular that everyone else copied it and IBM/PC clones were born. Then the architecture became the standard, and everyone could make components for a PC with (more or less) assurance that any component made would be compatible and fit into (almost) any other computer.
Phones, on the other hand were born out of the necessity of being the smallest and most portable device possible. This meant bespoke solutions. The people who were chasing that format chose an architecture, ARM, that at the time required everything to be on a single chip. Memory, storage, CPU, CMOS, everything has to be on the chip. Which means exchanging parts is not possible. System on chip became the smart phone standard. Now, technically ARM doesn’t have to always be SOC. But it means two things, first is that every phone model is an unique and bespoke production that will never exist again once out of print. Second, it is a Titanic task to reverse engineer certain parts of it, firmware for sensor input is always unique, for example.
This means that FOSS is at a disadvantage. To make free open software for a phone means that, either a manufacturer is magnanimous and gives you all the firmware, or after a major effort to reverse engineer lots of pieces of software, it will be useless for the next model of phone. You either make your own open standard phone, which is a several billion dollar r&d endeavor. Or you’re constantly shooting at a fast moving target.
No one has created an open standard that allows small component manufacturing of mutually interchangeable parts for phones. Risc-v is close but not yet terribly financially viable.
frank_exchange_of_views@sh.itjust.works 12 hours ago
It’s not any one platform that is too complicated, it’s that none of it was standardized. So once you have support for one phone completely done, the next model is already released 6 months ago and you have to start almost from scratch again.
Pixel was one exception to this, because Google would release and document all the modifications needed to run Android. Unfortunately they stopped doing this as well.
Contrast this to the x86 PC and laptop market and everything basic, like how to discover hardware, how to boot is all a documented standard. Even though on PC, you still have to deal with drivers for specific hardware.
Another reason why PC is much easier for Linux is that much of the hardware is shared with servers and for servers, Linux is absolutely a first class operating system, which all but some extremely niche hardware manufacturers fully support.
ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net 12 hours ago
You need way, way better sleep handling. To get decent battery life everything needs to be able to go to sleep really fast but also be able to listen for signals from specific devices like GSM modem and wake up immediately. Without it it’s not really usable. Desktop PCs didn’t have any sleep functionality for a very long time and even now they mostly just disable everything and wait for a button press. Sleep/wake-up cycle can last couple of seconds without issues.
Mobile hardware also has more devices. I don’t have GPS, GSM, accelerometer or finger print reader in my laptop. When Linux was developed they also didn’t have cameras or bluetooth. A lot of this additional devices are not easily available like PC parts and require closed source drivers and firmware.
To make a usable mobile phone you need to figure out all if it at once. You can’t really release a phone without GPS or GSM and expect people to use it as a daily driver. With PC you can leave without the camera or build in WiFi. I remember using USB dongles for WiFi and simply not having a working camera in my Linux laptops and I was fine with it.
TheLeadenSea@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
This is what happened when we allowed companies with a profit incentive to code our devices. Linux will always be free, and there will be companies that design computers for Linux, such as Fairphone, Framework, Furi, and probably some that don’t start with F too
RaivoKulli@sopuli.xyz 11 hours ago
By far most of work on Linux is being done by for profit companies
msage@programming.dev 9 hours ago
How does Fairphone design computers for Linux?
TheLeadenSea@sh.itjust.works 7 hours ago
The Fairphone is one of the beat supported Linux Mobile devices
StrawberryPigtails@lemmy.sdf.org 19 hours ago
It’s been done before. ChromeBooks comes to mind, but there have been others. Usually winds up killing the outfit that tries it.
As far as I know Chromebooks only survive because of the educational market. Locked down devices are preferable in schools.
I won’t buy one, but I could see such systems becoming dominant in another 20 years or so.
blargh513@sh.itjust.works 21 hours ago
It will creep in slowly since most people dont touch any settings on their computer after the initial unboxing and setup.
Big box retailers will offer discounts on them, much like how you can buy a Chromebook for very little.
Enticed by cheap computers, people will buy not knowing that any limitations exist. They’ll be encouraged to use centralized app repositories but they can still install some other stuff.
A year or two later, some things won’t be permitted, computer will make scary warnings when installing, but with enough clicking, you can get past. Until the day you can’t.
It will be a progression, but it will happen eventually. I honestly am surprised that computers dont require some sort of registration. I’m sure that will happen eventually.
Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 17 hours ago
Windows does require registration to any normal user at this point. Gotta setup a micrisper account
Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe 15 hours ago
It’s not required, it just seems required to non-technical people (I know, potato/potato, it’s effectively required).
DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 20 hours ago
Isn’t the serial number already on the box? So its already scanned into a database then you checkout? I know for phones at least, they definitely scan the barcode with the imei at checkout
ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
I have a feeling, that Windows 12 PCs will be just glorified smartphones with voice control as the default.
magnetichuman@fedia.io 15 hours ago
Expect specialist "open" hardware capable of installing any software/OS to become increasingly expensive, while increasingly locked-down, mass-produced consumer hardware remains at current price. You only need to look at TVs for an example of this - try finding a recent non-smart TV at a reasonable price as the cheap models are all subsidised by the revenue from pushing ads into your face.
Wispy2891@lemmy.world 13 hours ago
It’s almost already like this. In my country every single bank reinvented the wheel by creating a single purpose app which does what aegis does (otp generation from a seed) but with some bits changed (one for example “encrypted” the seed with ROT13) and with draconian measures like bootloader must be locked, adb must be disabled, and are using literal exploits to see if you have “forbidden” directories on /sdcard like/sdcard/magisk even if no file access is granted
bryndos@fedia.io 21 hours ago
That's probably why risc-v is getting quite popular in embedded stuff - smaller companies wanting more supply chain independence.
Hopefully it'll start to get more powerful soon for more serious computing.
Its nice that stuff like debian now has risk-v version too.warm@kbin.earth 1 day ago
We already have that. A reason they want to shift to ARM is so they can lock the hardware down.
gravitywell@sh.itjust.works 19 hours ago
Such pcs already exist and are used by buinesses and schools all over… Mostly chromebooks and i suppose apple also fits that criteria.
But it would be very hard to stop a determined hacker who has physical access to a device and doesnt mind voiding any warranties or user agreements.
chocrates@piefed.world 22 hours ago
Linux on the phone has come a long way I hear. I have been meaning to buy one and see if it can be my daily driver. Google being shitty would definitely push me there
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 17 hours ago
Just use Linux?
NoodlePoint@lemmy.world 9 hours ago
Nah, PCs are easier to install anything we want. Corps trying to lock out Linux would be like shooting themselves in the foot.
Phones are what they would like to get a tighter leash on, because it has become a device that nearly everyone buys more than PCs due to them being more usable and cheaper, and thus a bigger revenue channel.
mrfriki@lemmy.world 9 hours ago
I see Apple doing it, not because they are Apple but because they control the whole manufacturing process, so they wouldn’t need to negotiate with third parties. That’s what has happened in the mobile industry. In the PC side of things you would need to sit in a table: the CPU, OS, and probably GPU and MOBO manufacturers to negotiate, and knowing how greedy they all are, I don’t see it happening anytime soon. But hey, anything is possible in this dystopian society we live in.
ArmchairAce1944@discuss.online 9 hours ago
I have just one year before I pay off my phone and I want to get a degoogled phone. I wanted my current phone degoogled… but due to the breakage of my previous phone it was a bit of an emergency and I didn’t have time to do proper research.
xia@lemmy.sdf.org 1 minute ago
IIRC, I had a PC (since sold) that had secure boot permanently enabled from the factory. That is, in spirit, a PC with a “locked bootloader”, but you might not even notice because many Linux distros have that Microsoft-blessed Linux loading shim… but it is still Microsoft inserting themselves between you and your hardware; they could decide in the next few years they no longer “support” Linux, hypothetically.