https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/22/linus-torvalds-declares-intel-fix-for-meltdown-spectre-complete-and-utter-garbage/
Jest click on it and read the whole thing -- also please realize that the EU Council Members consider Torvalds an expert on fixing Meltdown and Spectre as he has ALREADY FIXED it for the Linux Kernel and shipped it and had it work correctly for over 2 months now.
I am typing this on a Torvalds kernel corrected Linux Mint machine .....
https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/22/linus-torvalds-declares-intel-fix-for-meltdown-spectre-complete-and-utter-garbage/
"Is Intel really planning on making this shite architectural? Has anybody talked to them and told them they are f*cking insane?
They do literally insane things. They do things that do not make sense. That makes all your [i.e. Woodhouse’s] arguments questionable and suspicious. The patches do things that are not sane.
…So somebody isn’t telling the truth here. Somebody is pushing complete garbage for unclear reasons. Sorry for having to point that out."There is a conspiracy theory that Wintel wants to sell us all a new generation of computers
and to do that they must artificially create a "need" for folks to buy that new generation of computers. Look to the net result and suspect the motivations behind it, in other words.
So you need to watch what happens in the next 6 months very carefully and if you choose to go with Win10 REMEMBER TO ONLY BUY AMD AM4 socket motherboard machines from a vendor that DOES DO BIOS UPGRADES TO THEIR MOTHERBOARDS PERIODICALLY.
This is something you need to research before plunking down any money. Most consumer grade machines have limited BIOS support from the machine maker as they don't think anyone is going to use the upgrades. "Gamer grade" machines tend to have better BIOS support as they do actually do massive upgrades as the machines age out. AMD AM4 makers tend to support BIOS better than Intel board makers.
Intel consumer machines (HP and LENOVO) don't have any sort of good support as it is "one more out the door" as far as their past history goes.
As you feel your aching arm getting cranked up higher behind your back by Wintel, start planning on what you are actually going to do about it.
First step would be to be honest about what you do with your machine, for what most of you actually do most of you could live very nicely off a $50 Amazon tablet or a $90 Android tablet (both will need an accessory bluetooth keyboard and mouse) and actually a cheap current generation Chromebook would actually be a bit of overkill for you power-wise.
Intel would simply be overspend and under-utilize all the way ...... and you need to be able to admit that to yourself.
Once you honestly weigh your needs, then you need to weigh out possibly re-purposing your old hardware using Linux as this is really the cheapest/best way to go, really. It does require you to think some and to learn some --- and yes you really can do it just like millions of others have already done.
FOSS is prepping two brand new Linux Distros that are being custom built to take all you Win7 guys in on your existing hardware while looking and doing just about like what you are used to.
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https://www.extremetech.com/computing/262647-linus-torvalds-says-intels-spect...Torvalds’ feelings on the Intel patch were made public in an email chain with Amazon engineer David Woodhouse. He takes issue with the content of the Spectre (variant 2) patch as well as the way it’s implemented on Linux systems. “Has anybody talked to them and told them they are f*cking insane?” Torvalds says at one point in the exchange.
The “insane” part, according to Torvalds, is that Intel has added redundant junk to the patch and made the entire thing optional. Administrators actually need to opt into the patch via a software flag when booting the system. Torvalds says this is because Intel’s Meltdown patch (known as “Indirect Branch Restricted Speculation” or IBRS) is so inefficient that rolling it out universally would cause substantial performance hits. In addition, Torvalds says many of the changes made by the patch are redundant when Google’s “retpoline” already provides protection.
Intel has responded to Torvalds’ concerns without really saying anything — pretty standard for PR. The company says it’s “actively engaging with the Linux community, including Linus.” We’re not out of the woods yet, so it’s good we’ve got people like Linus Torvalds holding Intel’s feet to the fire.
As Torvalds points out, it looks like Intel’s approach to patching Spectre is to not patch it. The software flag is a weird half measure when we’re talking about such a serious flaw. Torvalds also complains that Intel seems determined to punt on the issue until it implements architectural changes down the road.Read that last sentence again and realize that folks like Torvalds KNOW that Intel has plans to drop legacy x86 like a hot doggie turd later on this year.
Torvalds is making moves to tee up some FOSS replacements for you so you don't lose your very real $$$$ investment in hardware while Wintel moves to try to FORCE you to buy new hardware.