Re: Market research for new PowerPC system

On Sat, 26 Sep 2009, Konstantinos Margaritis wrote:

On Sep 26, 2009, at 8:58 PM, Guennadi Liakhovetski wrote:

quoted

Ok, just a short comment. In principle I like diversity, competition, etc.
And it was somewhat sad when Apple abandoned ppc. But honestly - why
should I be buying a ppc desktop system? If we restrict our comparison to
Linux, because that's what I'm using, what advantages would a ppc system
give me over a comparable in price ix86 system? This is not meant
negatively, I just have not followed recent ppc CPUs from the "desktop"
range, so, this is a real honest question. Would such a system provide
more MIPS per Watt at the same price? Or more periferals? Or some specific
hardware blocks unavailable or unsupported om ix86?

Ok, I remember a few years back when we had Alpha, MIPS, x86, SPARC,
PowerPC, etc all viable platforms to use and work on. Now it's only x86. I'm sorry,
I just don't like it. I cannot answer your question, no more than I can answer why
a car lover buys an old Jaguar antique for the price he could buy a new Audi S8
for example. Well, ok the analogy is not exactly the same, but you get the point.
If not, well, the ppc board would just lessen the current gap between x86/ppc in
favour of the -admittedly very small- ppc desktop/hobbyist market. Nevertheless,
I'm pretty sure the system would find itself in many ppc developers' desks, just
because they can't really buy something *new* with those specs, at this price range.
Ok, perhaps I will fail and just add my name to the list of failed hardware projects.
Perhaps not. I really don't know if I can convince you if you don't want to be convinced.
Deliver a super ppc system that beats all x86 systems at the same or better price? No,
I'm sorry I cannot do that, and I never implied I could. Only IBM/Freescale could do that
and even then the game would not be in their favour.

Ok, fair enough, as I said, that wasn't meant as a pun. I'd really love to 
see non-x86 desktops _successful_ on the market, and I don't mean just 
ARM-based netbooks, nettops, tablets, etc.:-) So, good luck to you, and I 
really mean it! Interestingly, ppc competes on embedded, competes on 
servers, but practically absent on desktops (apart from a couple of 
hackintosh manufacturers:-)), so, maybe indeed there's still something 
that ppc can offer us that x86 cannot - as a self-contained system, and 
not just a development platform for ppc professionals?

Thanks
Guennadi
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Guennadi Liakhovetski, Ph.D.
Freelance Open-Source Software Developer
http://www.open-technology.de/