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So you blame Apple for IBM's greed?
IBM could have made POWER based workstations and server more accessible, but they chose not to; just as IBM chose to tell companies to go f*ck themselves if they weren't able to purchase 10,000 units per month off their microprocessor subsidary.
IBM wanted to continue to sell over priced POWER workstaions; they could have quite easily pushed out a SUN Blade 150 configuration for around a grand, loaded with a PPC970 procesor, throw on a copy of AIX - 'enthusiast' package which didn't include any commercial support outside the usual service packs and updates; IBM chose not to do that.
Now IBM is coming back with another hypefeast that is openpower.org in a vein attempt to create a nice fuzzy SPARC like atmosphere, whilst forgetting that the number who are willing and/or able to pay $20,000 for a workstation is so limited, its laughable.
Its volume stupid, and you can't get volume by pricing a product at a level which only a niche can afford or able to justify the pricing - I'd love to own a PowerPC worstation loaded with AIX, but I sure as hell not going to pay an arm and a leg to get that experience nor is anyone else given the alternatives that exist from Intel and AMD.




Member since:
2006-04-21
I hope that (non-Apple - obviously) PowerPC-based desktops pick up, because I don't know if AMD and Intel are competitive enough with each other to keep x86 innovating. (I'm not saying they will; I'm not even saying I think they will - I'm saying I hope they will). It may be the case that Apple's high profile relative to everyone else in the PPC space actually hindered non-Apple PowerPC in general, especially since they neither licensed out hardware or OSes (except for a comparatively short period), nor offered other operating systems.