• Arghblarg@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    Don’t let your guard down. Maybe this time they’ll fully pull the TPM/UEFI trigger and make it impossible to install any other OS on new PCs… they have lots of leverage over manufacturers to tighten the screws on the BIOS and boot process.

    • jmcs@discuss.tchncs.de
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      1 year ago

      The European Commission would appreciate the multi billion euro “donation” from Microsoft if they did something so obviously anti competitive.

      • Detective Kakuna@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I agree, but also when has a threat of a fine ever stopped a capitalist from doing what they want? They just call it the cost of doing business.

        • jmcs@discuss.tchncs.de
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          1 year ago

          The kind of fines that are based on global revenue are at least enough to slow them down. Right now we are a bit in a phase of Whac a Mole phase of the EU doing new directives with these kinds of fines and American companies trying to find loopholes, but I don’t see how Microsoft would weasel out of this one.

          • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Also the US is interested in busting some trusts at the moment and that sort of behavior could cost Microsoft dearly. It’s one thing to demand that your software only run on your hardware, it’s a whole other thing to pay companies to block their hardware from software you don’t own

          • msage@programming.dev
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            1 year ago

            The funny thing is, they don’t need to weasel out.

            You block for competiton from working (dualbooting Linux users) for long enough they forget there is anything else, then you pull the claws back a bit to avoid the fines after the damage is already done.

            Rinse, repeat.

        • gammasfor@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          Microsoft had to provide a separate edition that gave the user a browser choice for 10 years because the EU successfully called anti-trust on Windows doing IE/Edge as default.

    • Pika@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      I don’t think they would hard shoot themselves in the foot like that thankfully/sadly? idk my opinions on it. They would start with company graded devices before doing a consumer lockdown, since they are less apt to get massive backlash from that, they have tried already and backtracked iirc with lenovo systems

      • Arghblarg@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        I hope you’re right. But the only reason it hasn’t gone as far as it has it because everyone watches them and pushes back. I remember the ARM-based Windows laptops they tried pushing, which had fully-locked bootloaders (WinRT?) That’s their endgame…