Rainer Weikusat <rainerweikusat@???> wrote:

> But "the hardware" didn't "break". Certain vendor-supplied software
> reportedly ceases to function if certain EFI variables are deleted.

That is the sort of linguistic gymnastics that vendors use to get out of accepting responsibility for stuff.
I think most people would equate with "it used to work", "X happened", "it now doesn't work" as being "X broke it". It no longer works, it's broken. Using linguistic gymnastics to try and call it something else doesn't change the fundamental fact that "it no longer works, therefore it's broken".

It is true that the "true hardware" didn't "break", but in this context, "the hardware" is the sum of the physical hardware, the firmware it runs, and the configuration files for that firmware. I see your argument that it's "the user broke the firmware" - but the end result is still that "the hardware no longer works" - ie it's broken.

I also agree 100% that the firmware writers have royally f***ed up on this. Deleting files off a disk can be recovered from (at least in terms of, you can re-install an OS on it) and you still have working hardware. Having a "software" system where deleting a file makes it unrecoverable is inexcusable.