I didn’t hate my Windows Phone when I had one.

Mostly; they just force themselves into the process for publishing each app and have an effective veto on apps. So yeah, no stores fully independent of Google.

When Biden was president the Democrats passed the Chips Act, which has grants for chipmakers to build in the US. When Trump took power he basically stopped issuing these grants to companies that were set to get them.

My understanding is that basically Intel will give 10% of itself if Trump stops blocking the grants it was already set to get. I guess Intel’s thinking is that if they make the US a part owner, then Trump won’t obstruct the company so much.

This might sound like good news (kind of) in that the government is getting equity in return for the money, but I doubt Trump will enforce the original requirements and purpose of the grants, so Intel probably won’t end up finishing many of the factories it was supposed to build. It also sets a precedent that you can’t rely on goverment grants to do things as future parties may change the terms of the deal retroactively, even after you already started.

No. Thankfully (at the moment) vendors are allowing us to install other OSes, but if a vendor really wanted to lock you down to Windows all they’d need to do is hide one option in the bios. I’m uncomfortable with the idea that there’s no technical reason preventing the PC industry from getting as locked down as Android phones did over time.

Only if the motherboard vendor allows you to. Imagine buying a Dell or Asus laptop and being forced to only run Windows.