On 1/15/2018 10:37 AM, Doomsdrzej wrote:
On Mon, 15 Jan 2018 17:54:17 +0000, Andy Burns
wrote:

Doomsdrzej wrote:

In Windows, as far as I know, the microcode software and updates are
taken care of by Intel, deployed to Microsoft and later provided as a
regular system update.

That is correct.

In Linux, it's not loaded by default as far as
I know because of the fact that this code is proprietary and therefore
not necessarily wanted.

That is incorrect.

Please correct me. The only reason I assumed that its approach was
such was because Ubuntu gives the user the choice to install
proprietary drivers for the Intel microcode. By default, it is either
not loaded or uses free ones. Are you suggesting that it iis the
latter? If so, very interesting.

Exactly what is microcode in this context?

I always considered microcode to be stuff that's hard wired into the
processor and cannot be changed.

Then there's stuff that gets loaded into the device,
such as a lan adapter, at every boot.
It changes the operation of the device, but the actual
processor is not changed. It can't permanently break the device.

Then there's stuff that gets loaded with persistence, like BIOS.
While it doesn't change the processor at all, it can certainly
prevent the system from operating at all.
I've got two win8 computers seemingly borked by that.
That's two out of two win8 machines.

It appears that there's a new class of microcode that can directly
change persistent code within the microprocessor itself???

I don't care for stuff that can break the system and leave you zero
recovery options.

All the bitching and outrage notwithstanding,
for the average home user, is
all this really any big deal? If it ain't broke...