Re: "Isn't making it go mainstream before this date kind of a bad thing?"
We asked Intel what was going on, twice, and had no response - not even a no comment, or an off-the-record explanation. We were certain with what we had - given the LKML discussions and information from other sources - so, why not warn the world that big changes are coming?
We offered no exploit code. Just a heads up that important alterations were being made to crucial bits of software. It's not our job to do companies' PR. We can't read minds.
And these changes were being done in the open, so any bad people paying attention could have known what we knew or more, and started exploiting it.
A lot of vendors hold us at arm's length, hoping we'll go away. We regularly get the silent treatment from various - but not all - companies. We're not going to sit on stories just because we get a no comment/no reply. Turned out this one was quite a big one. We had no idea it would be this big.
C.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
