VHS versus Beta, coal versus natural gas, high fructose corn syrup versus sugar – what do all of these comparisons have in common? In each case, the inferior first of the comparison somehow managed to become more widespread and possibly deemed better than the second. It’s a story that has no end in history. Sometimes, well, many times, an inferior idea, or product, is more popular than a clearly superior one.
This applies to computers as well. Leaving any prejudice out of the equation, people will say that OS/2 was a superior operating system to Windows, that the architecture of the PowerPC chip was superior to anything that Intel put forth at the same time, and the list goes on.
All of these better versus more popular comparisons aren’t necessarily faded into the past, however, as an article in Infoworld shows.
article in Infoworld
AMD has, since the design of the first Opterons, taken a long view of things, and, as the article relates, moved in a straighter, less difficult path. The logic of the design, and its inherent superiority is undeniable, but as the comparisons at the start of this piece show, things that should be as plain as the nose on your face (picture quality and tape handling of VHS vs. Beta), are
not necessarily so.
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I am extraordinarily patient, provided I get my own way in the end.Margaret Thatcher |