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Comment by StavrosK | Hacker News Reader

Can someone explain what the practical advantage of DRMing all our computers is?

Avoiding boot-sector malware

To perceive the computer as an appliance instead of a piece of hardware.

Alienate the users on their machine, not something that can be hacked, studied and understood as a computer, instead a piece of magical wisdom.

Dumb down the mainstream user, and tie them up on their products.

"Protect" their software, being the computer just a black box projecting their knowledge / entertainment.

I hope DRM backfires really hard on the companies advocating for it.

  > To perceive the computer as an appliance instead of a piece of hardware.

For many (most?) computers are appliances. Which does not contradict them being pieces of hardware.

  > Alienate the users on their machine, not something that can be hacked,
  > studied and understood as a computer, instead a piece of magical wisdom.

What a load of bullshit.

  > Dumb down the mainstream user, and tie them up on their products.

It seems it is extremely hard to grasp the simple true: only minority of the population is interested in being hackers, programmers and IT guys. They just want to use computers — much the same way like they drive their cars without any wish and ambition to be a car mechanic. It is not "dumbing down" — it is freeing them from caring "how do I make this fucking thing work" to just doing what they want to do: be it browsing Facebook, writing a research paper or calculating orbit to Mars.

I'm blown away that this comment is getting down voted. I don't care of you disagree with Microsoft locking down their boot loader, the above is the most accurate answer: 99% of users don't know what dual-boot means or care to find out. This secure boot only helps their experience, even if it's at our expense

And, that experience is exactly? (I am asking)

In my opinion secure boot just means that my computer is owned by the company that has certified it.

Helps them from shooting themselves in the foot. My Grandpa/parents/non-technical friends could care less about anything other than Facebook, email, and maybe some Quicken type software. To them, alerts and pop-ups are just annoying things that they just click on until they go away. For them, 'secure boot' shuts down one of the possible attack vectors for malware that prey on this mentality. I know secure boot isn't a good solution, but when a company can make a change to make 99% of their customer base "feel" more secure, and in turn drive more sales, they will do it every time. Sucks for people like us, but hackers (that care about boot loaders) only make up a very small portion of the market.

It seems it is extremely hard to grasp the simple true: only minority of the population is interested in being hackers, programmers and IT guys. They just want to use computers — much the same way like they drive their cars without any wish and ambition to be a car mechanic. It is not "dumbing down" — it is freeing them from caring "how do I make this fucking thing work" to just doing what they want to do: be it browsing Facebook, writing a research paper or calculating orbit to Mars.

Being that the case, what does DRM and the secure boot feature in UEFI add to that experience?

Secure Boot adds protection against certain classes of malware. It's not complete protection by itself, but it's blocking off one possible kind of attack.

No, I meant the advantage to users. Why would I buy a computer that's crippled like that?

> Why would I buy a computer that's crippled like that?

Because I want a computer. I go to the store, I see a cheap one, and I pay for it. Then I go home and use it. I'm an end user that just wants to get to email, youtube, and Google. I don't know what secure boot is, what a BIOS or an EFI is, all I care is that I don't have to spend money.

I don't know it's crippled. I have no way of noticing. Hell, I'm still using Internet Explorer.

If you're corporate you buy it to make sure that the OS and Drivers are both signed by the people you bought them from, and thus nobody has tampered with them.

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