[jolan]

Is there an embargo? Is it a silly play on the James Bond reference that Spectre represented? Either way pretty funny since you can't know for sure after this fiasco.

Botched micro code updates, Intel engineers arguing with each other on the linux kernel mailing list, etc. Intel's best and brightest have had 6+ months to work on proper mitigations in secret and this is the result.

https://marc.info/?l=linux-kernel&m=151559244214217&w=2 https://marc.info/?l=linux-kernel&m=151559367514704&w=2

[bonzini]

Silly play is what I heard as most likely.

Yeah, handling of mitigations for Spectre has been awful during the embargo period, but I am very happy with the result we're getting now. It's taking less than three weeks to get everything sorted out.