https://www.theverge.com/2018/1/23/16922530/linus-torvalds-intel-spectre-cpu-fixes-comment

Linux inventor Linus Torvalds has never been one for diplomacy. He previously said “fuck you” to Nvidia for not supporting Linux, and now Intel has angered him enough to generate some more expletives. In a message to the Linux kernel mailing list on the weekend, Torvalds has expressed his dismay at Intel’s security updates to protect against the major Spectre variant 2 CPU vulnerability. The industry has been scrambling to fix the Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities, and the variant 2 of Spectre has been particularly challenging.

“What the f*ck is going on?” asks Torvalds, claiming that Intel is doing “insane things” that “do not make sense” to protect against the Spectre variant 2 vulnerability. “As it is, the patches are COMPLETE AND UTTER GARBAGE,” claims Torvalds. At the heart of the issue is Intel’s approach to Spectre and the associated fixes. The Register points out that Intel’s future processors, at least for a few years, will ship vulnerable to Spectre and will include a flag that can be set in software so operating systems can protect against the vulnerabilities. Intel is essentially treating protection against Spectre as an optional feature, rather than a security bug that should be addressed.