On May 26, der Mouse wrote:
> > 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.

  Well, for companies who think the only way to obtain something is to
buy it for list price, sure.  But those morons get what they've got
coming.  But even in view of that, $1000 will buy you a hell of a lot
of UltraSPARC crunch power, even brand new from Sun.  (The Netra X1
comes to mind...I have one here, and I love it)

>  (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?)

  Sure.  The US Gov't surplus market.  Another excellent source is
leasing companies...they frequently sell off-lease hardware for
pennies on the dollar.  That's why there's a five-year-old Cray in my
computer room. :) Other than that, new Suns are quite cheap now, only
a touch more expensive than middle-to-high-end PeeCees.  The "I use a
PeeCee because good computers are too expensive" argument just doesn't
hold water anymore.  Perhaps as recently as 1-2 years ago, but not
anymore.

> > 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.)

  Ok, fair enough.  But why?

  Hardware...The mainstream PeeCee hardware market exists because
they've brainwashed people into believing their old computers will
stop working as soon as new computers are introduced.  Problem: the
vast majority of PeeCee users simply aren't doing that anymore.  Over
the past 2-3 years, new PeeCee sales have dropped to a tiny fraction
of what they once were.  Taiwanese PeeCee clone vendors are closing up
shop all over this country and dumping their inventories at hamfests.

  (And Itanium, the great SPARC/MIPS/Alpha/everything-not-Intel killer?
DOA.  People just aren't buying them, period.  Sure, you can't go to
BestBuy and purchase an UltraSPARC...But you sure can point a web
browser at http://www.sun.com and order one with a credit card.
Inaccessible?  Hardly!)

  Software...The mainstream PeeCee software market (i.e. Microsoft)
exists because there haven't been useful (at least according to
perception) alternatives for Microsoft Office and the file-management
GUI of Windows.  But now there ARE...it was either the New York Times
or the Wall Street Journal, I don't recall which, that just ran a big
article discussing how many of Microsoft's major high-volume business
customers...the people who buy $2-3 million dollars' worth of
Microsoft Office licenses at a shot...are investigating alternatives
like StarOffice and Linux with great haste, due to the licensing
change that was announced last year and will go into effect in a few
weeks.

  (I sure wish it weren't Linux, but I'll take it over Windoze any
day!)

  Anyway...not trying to be argumentative...just presenting a
different point of view.

       -Dave

-- 
Dave McGuire                       "Actually, I've found that I rarely wear
St. Petersburg, FL                    pants in Florida." -Sridhar