Yes, you can do FDE without a TPM, but it's nowhere near as convenient, or as secure (because inconvenience breeds insecurity). You either have to type in a boot password (as well as a login password), or you need to use a hardware dongle like a USB drive, which you will probably keep with your laptop anyways and it will probably get stolen with the laptop..

The point of the TPM is that it provides secure key storage, so you need only enter your normal login password once to unlock all secured devices. It also provides cryptographically secure randomness for better security.

Really? I can't find a single laptop, that isn't specifically targeted at enterprise volume customers, that ships with a TPM.

If almost all do, then you should be able to easily point out a few hundred. A dozen? 5? 1?

I'll wait.

I highly doubt that TPM 2.0 will be a requirement.. especially since TPM 2.0 isn't even a finished standard yet. And even when it is, the added cost will be a huge burden for OEM's and they will push back.

Who says I know nothing about the internal workings of the chip? TPM chips conform to international standards, specifically TCG, which in turn works with IETF, ISO, and the CC.

In particular, the TPM 1.2 standard is published as ISO/IEC 11889 Parts 1-4, and are completely available to you to read and understand.

On top of that, TPM chips are audited and certified by the TCG to ensure they follow the standard.

Of course you can keep pretending otherwise.. i'm sure you will...

I know of no PC's being sold with TPM chips that are not specifically ordered with them. As such, it's easy to get hardware with a TPM, you don't specially order it. There, done.

Fact is, every laptop SHOULD come with a TPM, for full disk encryption security. Yes, yes, blah blah blah, it can be hacked with an electron microscope and a laser scalpel while standing on your head during a blue moon.. so it's useless!

Fact is, if you have a TPM, and you encrypt your disk and use the TPM to secure your keys, then the odds of your data getting in anyone elses hands if your laptop is lost are essentially nil, regardless of whether or not a TPM can be hacked, or whether or not any disk encryption scheme can theoretically be defeated. Perfect security is not practical in such applications, even if it was possible, so we have to make due with simply strong security.

A lot of computers? Name one. Go ahead. I'll wait.

Fact is, I want a TPM, and I can't find a single commercial off the shelf Windows PC that ships with a TPM. Every vendor says that they are an option that must be specially ordered.

So please, point me to these computers that are forcing TPM's on us, i'll buy 10 tomorrow..

Go to all apps, everything is listed under their categories. You can "Zoom out" and just see the category names, just like expanding a menu.

They aren't included in the search results, but you can still type them and they will run. Try it.

Dude. How difficult is it to tap the windows key, type "Cont" and hit enter? Ok, want it quick access? Type "Cont" and right click on the Control Panel icon and choose Pin to Start Menu, then drag it to where you want it.

Seriously, it amazes me how people think futzing around with XFCE is so easy, yet become totally fucking stupid when there's a Windows Logo on something.

Want quick access to your documents? Open explorer, right click on Documents, and choose "Pin to start". How fucking difficult is that?

Dude, you haven't noticed that you can group icons into columns, just like a newspaper?

http://www.askvg.com/tip-organize-windows-8-start-screen-tiles-in-groups-and-name-these-groups/

And you can shrink them down with a keystroke:

http://blogs.computerworld.com/sites/default/themes/cw_blogs/cache/files/u98/Win_8_groups.jpg

Organize your stuff.

Also, yes, you can get stuff out the start screen to the desktop. Easiest way is to pin it to the taskbar, then drag it wherever you want.

Yeah, cause it's it's totally unreasonable to think that a substantial number of people don't have the same opinion as you.

That's Unpossible!

The mobile market is expected to dwarf the desktop market in the next couple of years. And by dwarf I mean by at least 2 orders of magnitude.

The idea that desktops are where it's at is antiquated.

You do know that Mozilla is releasing their own Phone OS, right? With their own app store.

Microsoft will not be removing the start screen, or going back to a start menu. They are pot committed to Metro, as it's part of their overall strategy going forward. You take away the start screen, you kill their entire strategy.

They may do some things to mitigate peoples annoyances, like making metro apps windowed, but the start page is here for a long time to come.

Assuming you a) have the skill and b) have the time and c) give a flying fart and d) don't want to commit seppuku by the maze of patch dependencies.

How is that any different from disassembling any other executable?

open source does not mean "source code is easy to get" it means "a license that allows the the source code to be used freely in an open way".

Simply disassembling code does not give you a license to use it.