Clouds are spreading and software is eating the world. But software depends on hardware. If that hardware is not trustworthy, open and secure, the software's trustworthiness, openness and security is for naught. The Free Software community has been forced to live with this conundrum for lack of good alternatives. Too pervasive and omnipresent was the Intel defined x86 architecture, throttling innovation, while sequestering security and control from its users.

Most of the discussion in our community centred around damage control and preventing being locked out from the platform for good. We focused our efforts on protecting our ability to use our own software. Positively shaping the future, driving the direction, and solving the problem of trustworthy hardware for good and at scale seemed impossible.

But, the thing is, without (almost) anybody noticing, all of the above has changed.