Re: Intel Microcode

[Michael Tremer <michael.tremer@ipfire.org>]

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Hi,

On Thu, 2018-08-23 at 10:26 -0400, Tom Rymes wrote:
> On 08/23/2018 9:34 AM, Michael Tremer wrote:
> > On Wed, 2018-08-22 at 19:36 +0200, Peter Müller wrote:
> 
> [snip]
> 
> > It looks like we have to rollback the microcode update. Intel has
> > changed the licensing terms in such a way that we won't be able (and no
> > third party either) to provide any performance benchmarks.
> > 
> > So if someone says on the forum that IPFire is "a little bit slower
> > since the last update", that would violate that license.
> 
> That's a VERY broad reading of the license. What you describe is a 
> subjective opinion of the performance of one installation from someone 
> not associated with the project, as opposed to the project itself 
> posting controlled performance benchmarks with before-and-after numbers.

That didn't come from me, but Debian and Gentoo:

* https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=906158
* https://bugs.gentoo.org/664134

RedHat and SuSE seem to be shipping the new microcode. Not sure if they
saw the change of the license.

There is also a number of articles in the German news (at least) who
share this opinion:

* https://www.golem.de/news/side-channel-angriffe-intel-untersagt-benchmarks-und-haertet-naechste-generation-1808-136151.html

> [snip]
> 
> > Basically, it isn't an option to ship this. Other distributions think
> > the same.
> 
> I see the desire to err on the side of caution, plus the desire to put 
> pressure on Intel to modify the license, but I'd argue it's overkill.

It is just ridiculous from my angle. Their primary sales argument is to
be on top of the list of each benchmark out there. They probably forgot
about that.

But this is more about a slight change to hide that they messed up
*massively* here and a very bad attempt to cover it up. Now they got a
proper Streisand going. Well done Intel.

I am so fed up with spending so much of my time trying to fix something
that they got wrong and don't even own up to it. They are a shit
company.

*Goes and punches a wall now*

-Michael

> Tom