Re: [LUG] OT: Fwd: HP and Lenovo caught installing malware in the BIOS

[Simon Avery <digdilem@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 24 August 2015 at 20:29, Martijn Grooten <martijn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Still, adding third party software isn't inherently bad.

True in itself - otherwise you'd just have a laptop with no OS and a very limited bios. But it's a sliding scale, with some manufacturers going way too far into the silly zone, and making software very hard to uninstall. (Certain windows anti virus springing to mind). This is carried through to extremes on smartphones, including android.Â

I had a phone recently that came with so many apps installed there was so little space left on the onboard ram that the first time the facebook app updated itself, it couldn't complete as it ran out of space and no other updates or new software could be installed...

Â

It wouldn't be bad if this hurt them, but laptops sold to businesses
typically don't come with this kind of crapware installed. Lenovo's
certainly don't.

While that's true, if I was in that corporate line, one of my buying decisions would be "Do I trust this manufacturer not to break our corporate security?"

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