@lxoThe year is 2057, some shithole on the West. amd64 hardware now comes bundled with baked-in EFI specifications that now include a full network stack, filesystem support, multi-user account support and an absolutely proprietary and misery-box hypervisor. You can't remove this software as it's designed in such a way from factory that hardware bricks if you even dare to reflash it.
The process to install an operating system now requires online identification as soon as you turn on the device and EFI starts running, using a state or corporate provided and approved account bound to your real identity. Once you're identified with an online account the EFI allows a specific selection of operating systems to spin and install on a virtual machine that runs on top of the EFI's hypervisor, all of them verified and signed by Big Brother.
This is not a thing today, the laws being pushed now regarding age identity and verification are written by illiterates, but I'm sure we'll be getting something similar to this once governments figure out how they can "protect kids online" when some big tech codemonkey eager to get extra bucks explains them how to do this effectively.
That being said, don't you think this will make GNU and any other free operating system effectively pointless?