Years ago Stallman wrote a
fictional prophetic story about a future where you will need an "official" license by the state and corporations in order to do anything on a computer.
https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.htmlRecent developments seem to confirm this prophecy. Intel is conspiring with hardware manufacturers like Lenovo/Thinkpad, to prevent any changing of the firmware and eventually the OS itself from manufacturer controlled defaults
http://patrick.georgi-clan.de/2015/02/17/intel-boot-guard/We've all known the TPM would eventually be used for such shenanigans but with "Intel Boot Guard" this has become a reality. The CPU can refuse to boot the system if the keys for the software do not match, and there's fuck all you can do. You can't change the TPM keys, you can't "hack" the molecule sized SoC CPU to prevent this either.
This is going to expand, especially with consumer devices like Android handhelds becoming walled gardens. The situation has gotten to the point where it's necessary to stockpile older and freer computer parts. I suggest you become a Stallman prepper by purchasing old boxes to use when suddenly we wake up and discover that Intel/AMD and ARM are peddling a SoC that runs entirely proprietary software which conspires with the hardware manufacturer TPM keys to prevent any changing of the operating system, firmware or even installing apps not "approved" by Lenovo, IBM, HP, Dell, Samsung, LG, Apple, ect.
There's already people in my country pushing for developer licensing so if you call yourself a 'software engineer' you must subscribe to some guild-like entity and they can only bless you with this status. Then because we supported proprietary development tools so much they will become the defacto tools and will require licenses and permission to use. Everything you do with them will be messaged home to verify you aren't a hacker or miscreant intent on disrupting the state or violating copyright/Intellectual Property bullshit.