On: Microsoft disables Spectre mitigations as Intel’s patches cause instability

[AnIdiotOnTheNet]

I doubt Intel will see serious punishment in the market. As usual, there will be a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth but when push comes to shove most people will prioritize nearly everything over security.

All markets work like this. People bitch about the quality of products, but still buy the cheap stuff.

[javajosh → AnIdiotOnTheNet]

This will be true until something uses Meltdown in the wild to cause massive damage. When a digital superflu comes, businesses and individuals will be faced with a choice: continue to use Intel and be vulnerable to a flu that is literally wiping out businesses, exchanges, hospitals, etc or replace ALL of their hardware with AMD.

Interestingly, I think AMD has a lot of motive to create such a superflu, or at least encourage it's creation.

[bmer → javajosh]

If AMD were proved to have been involved in the creation of such malware, to what extent could they be litigated against?

[javajosh → bmer]

Well, it would be highly illegal (and immoral) to create such a program, regardless of who did it.