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> they store the networks you connect to on a chip

That is the first I've ever heard of such a thing, and it sounds implausible.

This really is a feature on Macs. It works for Bluetooth too, apparently to allow network/keyboard/mouse functionality to work in recovery mode and to unlock an encrypted disk.

It's still stored in NVRAM, which the OS (or EFI firmware) has to consciously parse and then give to whatever process manages network connections. Nothing is stored in the wireless chip itself - those are generally stateless.

What I find especially weird is that even if there is a hardware level feature, why would that become available to a non-MacOS operating system?

Some Apple Intel Macbooks came with an Arm T2 chip that controls security-related functions, e.g. disk encryption. With Apple Silicon, that capability is part of the M1/M2 SoC.

If network SSID history is/was stored on the T2 chip, then it could likely be removed using MacOS settings before installing another operating system.

Older Intel macs stored the SSIDs as UEFI vars, I think even the T2 ones did too but I might be wrong.

Interesting, I wonder if Windows does something similar.

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