

Ask HN: Why doesn’t Microsoft release its OS in chip? - mmrasheed

I&#x27;m curious why Microsoft, the unbeaten OS maker in the world, doesn&#x27;t release its OS in hardware chip (only). The way I see it-<p>Advantages:<p>. Flash memories (specially NAND) are dart cheap these days. And if Microsoft decides to go for it, NOR memories won’t remain expensive given the volume of the OS Microsoft sells.<p>. Microsoft is losing significant amount of money to the hackers and crackers. And OS in chip only solution will force the customers buy the OS.<p>. OS hack will be significantly more difficult, if not impossible. Custom design of the chip will make hacking infeasible.<p>. Loading OS from flash to RAM will require significantly less time.<p>. Unique hardware identity per cheap (Apple’s iPhone 5s+ like) along with crypto engine will make the users and their data more secure.<p>Possible solutions:<p>. RAM Slot: OS in a RAM slot comes to my mind first. A RAM stick can have the OS along with RAM chips. Users plug and play the OS. No more hassle to install OS. It will ensure OS license&#x2F;user.<p>. Single chip: Single chip containing flash memory, cryptography engine, MCU and RAM for data and OS update&#x2F;upgrade management will be shipped with the motherboards of the devices. It will ensure OS license&#x2F;machine.<p>. BIOS replacement: replacing the decades old BIOS with a full fledge OS chip makes sense in terms of dynamic hardware detection, and security of the system.<p>What&#x27;s the catch?
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aurizon
How would you patch bugs? Add bug fixes after boot? After a while that will
take hours to download and install. Amend an image loaded from the ROMs in
flash, so each one is updated means pirates can send updated flashloads
around. Apple uses a unique chip with serial etc, but even that is defeated.
recently they require a serial number for each free OS download - that has
crimped bootlegging, but there are new updated OS on torrents daily, so only
the sheep are corralled...

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joshtronic
The catch is that you'd probably need everyone to upgrade their hardware and
you'd still have to maintain an installable copy for the VM users

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mmrasheed
Using OS in RAM slot, people would be able to upgrade their OS even in today's
machines.

