I’m glad Microsoft realized allowing any company to push kernel-level code to consumers was a terrible idea. A bug at that level can brick a PC and needs to be thoroughly scrutinized before being pushed out to end users. If a company dedicated to computer security wasn’t doing proper code reviews I really doubt game studios were either.

Hooray…Microsoft?

locking down the Windows kernel in order to prevent similar issues from arising in the future. Now, according to a Microsoft blog post about the recent Windows Endpoint Security Ecosystem Summit, the company is committing to providing “more security capabilities to solution providers outside of kernel mode.”

So first off, from a purely-technical standpoint, I think that that makes a lot of sense for Microsoft. Jamming all sorts of anti-cheat stuff into the Windows kernel is a great way to create security and stability problems for Windows users.

However.

I don’t know if my immediate take would be that it would permit improving Linux compatibility.

So, from a purely-technical standpoint, sure. Having out-of-kernel anti-cheat systems could make it easier to permit for Linux compatibility.

But it also doesn’t have to do so.

First, Microsoft may very well patent aspects of this system, and in fact, probably has some good reasons to do so. A patent-encumbered anti-cheat system solves their problem. But that doesn’t mean that it’s possible for other platforms to go out and implement it, not for another 20 years, at least.

Second, it may very well rely on trusted hardware, which may create issues for Linux. The fundamental premise of a traditional open-source Linux system is that anyone can run whatever they want and modify the software. That does not work well with anti-cheat systems, which require not letting users modify their local software in ways that are problematic for other users. My Linux systems don’t have ties up and down the software stack to trusted hardware. Microsoft is probably fine with doing that, on both XBox and newer trusted-hardware-enabled Windows systems.

Fantastic. Though, I have to wonder if this is going to result in either way more cheaters, or if the anti-cheat will become super fucking awful to deal with and start making (broader) arbitrary decisions on what you can and cannot run because it has less access to shit.

Regardless, the less shit fucking around in the kernel the better, especially for shit that shouldn’t have ever been there in the first place.