Sticking with 32 bits is like saying
Henry Ford is doing fine with black model Tees. Why should we investing a paint factory that makes colors?
Also, whether the best prevails or not, the fact is that Compaq will be offering the best, the cheapest, and most powerful computers for the Enterprise market, *with support* for the forseeable future. It will take Intel at least 6 months to a year to catch up to the Alpha in raw speed, if and when they do.
The real question is whether Compaq is willing to try to raise public conciousness that Alpha is a valid (and long-lived) alternate to "Intel Inside"
Also, Microsoft NT5.0 dominance is not a done deal. When relatively low cost Enterprise servers are available running Apache on Linux, and *supported* by Compaq, MIS managers may make the same leap that destroyed the "no one has ever been fired for buying IBM" myth.
Current NT4.0 reliability under heavy load is much poorer than Linux, according to ssc.com. |
