If you can license software with a definite expiration date, why can't you license hardware with a definite expiration date? And have your license enforced by the operating system? Imagine that I'm a company with a hardware product, and instead of selling that hardware at large expense, I rent it out, and provide drivers with an expiration date to enforce the terms of the hardware lease. If the lease is renewed, I'll provide new drivers with a new lease expiration.

Not that I'm arguing for hardware licensing, or arguing that it was what Oculus was trying to achieve and screwed up somehow. But there's a difference between "Microsoft built a feature some of their customers didn't know how to use" and "Microsoft built an anti-feature".

I'm not being facetious, FWIW. I know a fair amount about PKI, in general (probably in more depth and intricate detail than the average HN'er, actually), but I'm not a developer and I know very little about code signing in particular (and even less when it comes to the Microsoft world of code signing).

I do find it kinda hard to believe that there's no use case whatsoever for this particular configuration (code signing w/o an included timestamp from a TTP), though. I certainly understand why a timestamp can be valuable (as it would in this case) but what isn't clear is that there is "no scenario" whatsoever where the lack of a timestamp might be acceptable or perhaps even desired.

As I said, though, I don't know enough about code signing specifically to know what these scenarios might be but I can't imagine there isn't even one of them.

My point was: in most threads, there's a common opinion or viewpoint shared by most, along with a few "detractors". In general, though, the overwhelming "predominant" opinions (within/on a particular subject) are pretty consistent from one thread to the next.

For example, the "it's the end user's fault, not the developers" thing I mentioned earlier. That seems to be, pretty consistently, the "belief of the majority". Here, though, it's the complete opposite. Instead of saying "the end user (Oculus) screwed up" (which, IMO, they certainly did, FWIW), it's "Microsoft made a footgun which caused this".

That said, I have now made it through the rest of the comments in this thread and it seems that this viewpoint isn't as widespread as it first appeared. Perhaps I just jumped to a conclusion much too quickly; there's obviously plenty of fingers pointing at Oculus as well.