GUI

[James Knott]

Taavi Burns wrote:
> On Sat, Nov 29, 2003 at 03:31:40PM -0500, William Park wrote:
> 
>>So far, Korean (federal) and German (municipal) government decided to
>>try Linux.  This means Intel CPU, also.  Where are the commies when you
>>really need them?
> 
> 
> Um...last I checked Linux ran on a wide variety of CPUs, not just Intel.
> 
> Of course they're going to reuse a crapload of x86 boxen (maybe they're
> AMD?), but once running Linux there isn't such a gross necessity to
> purchase x86 boxen.  They could easily get some PPC or MIPS boxen in
> there.
> 
> Oh, wait.  x86 boxen are WAY cheaper anyway, and not afaik because
> Intel did anything illegal.  (at least, as you've pointed out, nobody's
> pointed a finger at them to the same extent as M$)  So the 487 was
> a full 486 that turned your 486SX into a nice little frying pan.
> You still got the functionality you paid for.
> 


Also, several years ago, Intel had to licence 2nd source suppliers for 
their chips, before they could be considered for military equipment. 
This resulted in companies such as AMD, Siemens, NEC etc., making plug 
in compatible chips for the Intel market.  In my XT clone, I replaced 
the Intel 8088 with an NEC v20, which not only ran 8088 software faster, 
but could also run 8080 (remember CP/M?) apps.



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