By "Intel" I meant the Intel series of chips. AMD and Cyrix clone the Intel
chips, as you mention.
> Why would you choose PPC though? I think that PPC would be the ideal
> architecture if Apple and IBM got their act together with the
> PREP/CHRP/whatever standards. But until then I think that Alpha is a
> better option because of greater popularity and greater CPU speed. Alpha
> does have the drawback of having 2 different types of BIOS setups which are
> totally incompatible...
Great point. How much does a DEC Alpha run these days anyway?
> I find the windows hardware situation rather amusing. Remember when the
> Windows users were buying the GDI printers and scoffing at people who used
> UNIX and OS/2 because they couldn't save 10% by using a GDI printer? Then
> Win95 came out and the GDI printers weren't supported...
Yep. ;)
It was pointed out to me in mail by another reader that the "Windows
Hardware" such as modems could probably be supported by Linux or anyone else
who bothered to write the driver, and that the money that would be spent on
the support hardware would better be used for CPU and RAM.
The situation is still kind of annoying, though, except for the amusing
aspects you bring up. ;)