this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2026
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I don't think it's coming, but if they really do "go there" what it will look like is: extreme tariffs on "open" processors, $1000 for a Raspberry Pi where you can get a new Intel Core NUC class system for $500. And, IMO, it would be worth the premium for the freedom of operation, but, then, you've also painted a target on your forehead by being one of "those nutjobs" who are willing to pay so much more for something that "only criminals need."
I will say: the US is more likely to take away our right to free computing before they take away our right to privately own firearms.
Buying new ultra-low-performance hardware makes no sense even in that scenario. PCs can last decades. People in the US would just hoard used components. And piracy still exists even though there was real effort to end it. So I guess the jailbreaking/right-to-repair community would eventually get around the limitations.
There are plenty of examples where the absolutely strictest regimes tried to restrict their citizens' access to foreign goods. And black markets always won.
The firearm situation is a bit exceptional though. Being armed might make resistance a bit more viable once a large percentage of the population stops fighting each other over whether futanari are men or women.
They can, but how much of that longevity is in your control? My last round of Intel NUCs all died within a month of each other at 4.5 years of age - I have NUCs that I ran for 6 years before them that still work fine, but that's now 11 year old hardware and remarkably underpowered compared to today's options...
Some would, some already do. Most?
How real? Piracy still exists because it was too politically costly to end it.
They already do for the current limitations. How big is that community vs the broad market?
Did they? When I traveled through the former East Germany in 1990 my bicycle was 40 years of design above and beyond anything any East German had seen before. I stayed with a "wealthy" retiree in his apartment filled with the latest/greatest of what he could obtain on that black market: a reel-to-reel tape player, a 9" color TV, basic Hi Fi gear - nothing resembling a computer.
Thankfully.