Way to stick it to your existing customer base IntelFollow

simple, it is their relationship with Microsoft and the mass market makers of PC desktops like Dell and Gateway. How often do you see the top brand names like Dell, Gateway, HP/Compaq, Sony, etc... using anything other then Intel chips?

very very very seldom will you see an AMD chip in those brands and if you do it is never advertised on TV.

the reason is the same as to why you only see them advertising Windows as their OS. it is a lock on their contract with Microsoft and Intel to keep the wholesale price of the software and hardware lower so the mass makers can drop the price of of the bottom of the PC market and yet still make a proffit.

think about it. just a few years ago PCs were going for under $400 including a 17in CRT monitor. they were P4 systems with 512M or 256M ram, came with winXP Home (most of the time Pro was an upgrade option) AGP vid cards, etc...

you could not buy all of the hardware and software for as much as the big names were selling the package for. they did it in bulk and they did it in contracts to block out companies like AMD and other OSs. Call any of the big name brand PC makers and try to get a workstation running linux?

Dell offers RHE on their servers but that also includes the 5yr servicea agreement with RH for roughly $750 or about the same price as you pay for base win2k3 server with 5 client license. so that is defeating the point of buying a system to put Linux on it or any other OS for that matter.

3 years ago i tried to get Dell, Gateway, and HP (before they joined with Compaq so may of been a tad longer) to sell me just the hardware with no OS pre-installed. NONE of them would do it, and at the time Dell would not even talk to me about RHE. HP wanted to sell me their vs of linux, but it is not true linux as it is closed and not open thus not true GPL, and Gateway just refused to do anything other then win2k or winNT servers.

So in a very long winded answere to your question as to how Intel has stayed in business as long as they have, they are in bed with MS and a large part of the vender relationship that has made MS as powerful as it is today.

My dad likes Macs and my brother likes macs. I like PCs yet I'm stuck with a mac that can't play any games cause they don't have any good games for Mac. Except for WoW and Star Craft, but I don't play WoW and Star Craft is old and probably won't run on a G5.

Can't wait to get a PC. I don't know why people say they're so much easier to use. My mom still has trouble using the internet.

My motherboard saved my chip when this happened to me (cpu fan died) Thank you ASUS.

Macs are best used as tools.

I swear by Macs for video and sound editing for TV and film. I love Final Cut.

However, for a multi-use platform, PC all the way.

I'm impressed with AMDs where I have air conditioning and/or good ventilation, but let those babies warm up and they're like Al'Katie's butt-cheeks on an over-upholstered barstool..

Where that's not the case (and on laptops where I can't guarantee what atmosphere I'll be working in) I stick with Intel.

There's no place like 127.0.0.1

Last Summer my Box Fan (as opposed to the CPU Fan) failed.

Noblet forgot I'd asked him not to boot it up and it fried. I mean totally - melted & charred the M/B and the Graphics card. Had to build a new one but stuck with AMD.

Thankfully, I've managed to remotely hook the main processor up to one of Nadenu's disapproving glances and the temperature's stayed below 20 degrees.

Kaolian had 5cc of orange juice before typing this thread (its deadly for him - makes him into a mad mac hating pshyco).

The reason Intel has maintained such a large market share is due entirely to the other chipmakers themselves. They spent the latter part of the 90s putting out poor quality chips while claiming unrealistic clockspeeds that were so out of touch with reality you had to wonder if you were reading specs from the future? Remember the 5x86 anyone?

The other manufacturers gave themselves a reputation for making cheap poor quality knockoffs for kids that couldn't afford the better pentium chips. Like that goon who tries to race every camaro he pulls up next to in his 97 neon with the oversized aluminum spoiler. AMD makes far better chips today, in some respects better than their higher priced Intel counterparts, but many of us refuse to forget replacing charred and melted motherboards, or resolving constant bluescreens for angry customers who thought they were getting a better deal with the cheaper chips.