On Friday, 09 May, 2014 02:54 AM, Ric Moore wrote:
Thanks for the response, but my question comes more from a security perspective: Does ignoring CPU microcode updates make your computer more or less vulnerable in general?On 05/08/2014 02:16 PM, A Debian User wrote:Hello, all! I want to have a completely Free install of Debian, which means I will only be using software packages from the main repo, and will be excluding contrib and non-free from my sources file. By doing so, I won't be able to install the microcode updates for my computer's CPU. Is this safe, given that these microcode updates reportedly patch up vulnerabilities in the these processors? Even the Debian wiki (https://wiki.debian.org/Microcode) says that these microcode updates are "not safe to ignore".What's nice is that it is YOUR choice to make. Me, I'd never ham hock my video cards with a "free version" driver as I want all the hardware goodness I can get. I paid for them both to drive four monitors. If I want crufty, I need only boot my ancient 32bit Thinkpad to see it.So, while someone might tell you what you SHOULD do, it's always your right to do what is right for you to do, as long as you harm no one else in doing so. Have fun. Otherwise the OS becomes just another drudge. :) Ric