We've also already seen that Microsoft considers ARM systems to be "special" enough to require locked bootloaders as well. Don't get me started on the mess in the smartphone world. I'd hate to see a world where the only "open" computing revolves around either Raspberry Pi-class SBCs or expensive datacenter servers, with no middle ground.

Meanwhile for arm64 Macs, they aren't either. Yesterday, https://twitter.com/xenokovah/status/1339914714055368704?s=2... was released to run unsigned kernels.

One can hope, I guess. If I could be sure I could run Linux without it being hobbled, and that Apple wouldn't pull the rug out from under me, I could actually see myself adding a Mac Mini to the stable.

Edit:

> Windows on arm64 systems aren't locked down.

Has this changed? I recall that on ARM, Microsoft requires that UEFI Secure Boot be enabled, cannot be disabled, and cannot load custom keys. So, you could boot Linux as long as it's been "blessed" by Microsoft, assuming they don't pull the rug out, much like the leaving Secure Boot enabled on an x86 PC (except on a PC you can usually load your own keys).

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/01/windo...

For 64-bit Arm Windows devices, they had the security policies of a conventional PC since the very beginning.

https://www.happyassassin.net/posts/2014/01/25/uefi-boot-how...

I find it funny that almost all the real gripes with user freedom infringement actually tend to come as a result of Microsoft or other big players getting their fingers into a hardware platform.

Now with Reunion merging both worlds, and Windows 10X only planned for 2021, it might be a different story.

For a little while there was one partner who used it for Gluster ( or similar ) storage nodes.

It fit into the model of Arm processors that were performant enough to be the glue between hard disks or flash and a reasonably fast network. But after the PCI lanes were all dispatched there wasn't a lot of compute for applications on top.

I too have heard that they have their own ARM micro architecture project though

And then I'm sure most sheep-like OEMs will say "Oh, we want THAT, too. Where is it - we want it yesterday!" But AMD won't be able to provide one too soon, because they would've gone all in on Arm v8, and they'd want to squeeze at least a couple of generations out of that microarchitecture.

Something similar happened when Apple announced the first Armv8 processor and it took Qualcomm and all the rest 2 years to catch-up.

ARMv8 (i.e. 64-bit ARM), of course, has been around for a while now.

[1] Keep in mind that anything on Reddit not confirmed elsewhere is very likely either wild speculation or made up fiction.