I have to chime in.

Normally, apple is extremely cucked. However, the extreme leftist aka Marcan porting Linux to the Apple M1 architecture (which is really just ARM on a custom chipset) -- has talked about this specific architecture not having these same remote-management engine capabilities a la intel ME -- due to physical limitations.

And yeah. If you're running Artix Linux or Hardened Gentoo or WHATEVER -- you're running x86_64? AMD64? however you choose to identify it? Cool beans, your computer is at constant risk of remote privilege access REGARDLESS of your OS -- that's right, Ubuntu, Arch, Gentoo, FreeBSD, OpenBSD even -- you're fucked. Your CPU executes code at far greater levels of permission than anything a software patch can fix. Couple that with internet-aware firmware, and again, like I said -- you're fucked. Don't connect machines to computers. Use dedicated systems for web browsing. These are basic steps, people.

Btw, DaddyX, you're right, most people won't run Windows on a server, but like you mentioned, if they're running this most common desktop architecture, it doesn't matter what OS they're using. These are malware that use extremely low-level code and cleverly disguised assembly to do what they do. So I really hate when people take it to the OS level. It really does come down to your chipset and CPU and the I/O when accounting for computer security. But if you're connecting a "secure system" to the internet, that is an inherently insecure operation.

AMD also has a "backdoor" management engine. I cant remember the name but its just as invasive.