[kwlug-disc] Am I being dumb?

[Ronald Barnes]

Ron Singh wrote on 2020-11-19 5:22 p.m.:

> I noticed a measurably faster response time for just about everything on 
> these 3 laptops with the exception of SSD disk I/O.

I'm assuming some of those microcode updates dealt with the Spectre / 
Meltdown issues - hyperthreading vs hypervisors.

So, without the updates they run faster via full use of hyperthreading, 
but are vulnerable to esoteric, unlikely threat models.


> My 3 laptops are used in a very restricted way with a restricted list of 
> URLs visited. The same sort of end-use applies to my client.
> Life is lived with JS turned off except when needed by trusty sites.

Seems like the Spectre / Meltdown threats are minimal in your situation.


> I am not a "sky is falling" kind of guy and resent the microcode updates 
> that just slow my device down so much. The mitigations to not apply to 
> my use cases and most folks' use cases, it would be nice if the updates 
> would be presented in a triaged format where one can select these 
> non-security updates as needed. The easiest way I found was to hold back 
> the packages in the Mint update manager.


> Am I being dumb beyond tears for doing this? Should I have greater 
> respect/fear of the possibility of a future system hack/compromise?

My first thought wasn't that you're dumb, but maybe wasting time. On 
reflection, I'm leaning towards clever.


Someone smarter than me (most everyone on this list) shall come along 
soon to negate my ideas, I'm sure.


Meanwhile, enjoy being seen as "clever", I guess?



Regards,

rb