Hardware-based attestation of the running software is an important security feature, especially in a world where data leaks and identity theft are rampant. Let's say I'm a healthcare provider, and I'm about to send sensitive medical data to a third party vendor. Wouldn't you prefer that this data only be able to be decrypted by a computer that can prove to the world it booted a clean OS image with all the latest security patches installed?
If the vendor wants to install some self-built OS that they trust on their computer and not update it for 5 years, that's their business, but I may not want to trust their computer to have access to my personal data.
Remote attestation gives more control to the owners of data to dictate how that data is processed on third-party machines (or even their own machines that may have been compromised). This is useful for more than just DRM.
> I cannot say how much freedom it will take. Arguably, some of the new features will be “good.” Massively reduced cheating in online multiplayer games is something many gamers could appreciate (unless they cheat). Being able to potentially play 4K Blu-ray Discs on your PC again would be convenient.
However, I'm more worried about the questions the increased deployment of technology will bring, such as will Linux users be doomed to a CAPTCHA onslaught being the untrusted devices, or worse. Important questions that, unless raised, risk us just "going with the flow" until it is way too late.
The current landscape of CAPTCHA technology is pretty bleak. It's pretty easy to use ML to learn and solve the early first-gen CAPTCHAs that just used crossed-out words. Google reCAPTCHA relies primarily on user data, obfuscation, and browser fingerprinting to filter out bots, but that only works because of (possibly misplaced) trust in Google. It falls back to an image recognition challenge (which hCaptcha uses exclusively) if you don't have a good data profile - which can also be solved by automated means.
I don't see desktop Linux being fully untrusted off the Internet, if only because Google won't let it happen. They banned Windows workstations internally over a decade ago and they are institutionally reliant upon Linux and macOS. What will almost certainly happen is that Linux will be relegated to forwarding attestation responses between Pluton, some annoying blob in Google Chrome, and any web service that does not want to be flooded with bots in our new hellscape of post-scarcity automation.