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Comment by perihelions

20 days ago

> "void warranties if you want "

Please don't push the Overton Window any further. Installing my own software on my own PC should never void the hardware vendor's warranty. That delegitimizes the core concept of a PC.

(A horrific possible dystopia just flashed through my mind: "I'd love to throw out Chrome and install Firefox so that I could block ads, but, the laptop is expensive, and I can't afford voiding the warranty". I bet Google would *love* that world. Or, a UK version: "I'd love to use a VPN, but, regulation banned them from the approved software markets, and anything else would permanently set the WARRANTY_VIOLATED flag in the TPM").

This is where it's heading, and I see this as the real driving force behind secure boot on x86_64.

It depends on what your software does; if it removes hardware protections then your warranty should be voided. Of course, those protections are either hardware or impossible to remove, like emergency cooling / lowering voltage when stuff overheats.