This processor/microcode defect has been found on Intel Skylake and Intel Kaby Lake processors with hyper-threading enabled. Besides these 6th and 7th generation Intel Core processors, its also found on its related server processors, such as Xeon v5 and Xeon v6, and some select Intel Pentium processor models.
While the Debian community revealed the problem, it's not Linux-specific. Any operating system -- Windows, macOS,FreeBSD, you name it -- can run into the problem.
According to Intel chip errata, "Under complex micro-architectural conditions, short loops of less than 64 instructions that use AH, BH, CH or DH registers as well as their corresponding wider register (e.g. RAX, EAX or AX for AH) may cause unpredictable system behavior. This can only happen when both logical processors on the same physical processor are active."
This will lead to the computer experiencing "unpredictable system behavior." What programs will cause a computer to act up? That's a good question, and we don't have a good answer. As Holschuh wrote, "We do not have enough information at this time to know how much software out there will trigger this specific defect."
