I'm not Paul, of course.  But, well, I'm foolish enough to chip in....

> I've not any job that an Intel box is better at than a well-designed
> computer, except for perhaps sitting on a suit's desk running
> PowerPoint presentations.

I agree with you-- until you roll price into the formula.

Unfortunately (I say "unfortunately" because I too don't like the x86
architecture), if you have a day to shop and $1000 to spend, and want
the most general-purpose computrons on your desk for it, the Right
Decision is probably an x86 box.  (At least for generic "you" - perhaps
you(==Dave, or even ==Paul) know where to get "well-designed computer"s
cheap; if so, would you be willing to share the knowledge?)

> Indeed, the Pentium4 is falling short of Intel's sales projections
> (or wishes?) by orders of magnitude, and Itanium is dead-on-arrival,
> and people are moving away from Microsoft Office in droves due to the
> forced-upgrade licensing crap that's about to be put into effect.  Do
> you REALLY think that side of the industry is going to last much
> longer?

Yes, I do.  (I would _love_ to be wrong; as I said above, I don't like
the x86, and would be delighted to see real choice appear in the
commodity computron market.)

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