On Vernor Vinge’s Rainbows End all hardware and operating systems have embedded Digital Rights Management software, a fact that while Vinge doesn’t specifically explain it, probably outlawed operating systems such as Linux which you have under your control (and not the other way around).
Now a guy in the U.S. who has been convicted of uploading a copy of the Star Wars movie has been forced by the court to switch to Windows if he wants to use a computer, because they want to track him using software that is not available on Linux.
Lord knows we need them dangerous criminals tracked.