🚀 go-pugleaf

Michael C Mccarty writes
> I have a fairly basic question that I want to make the
> answer clear to myself and possibly others.
> 
> Why should I buy a 486SX-25 or 486DX-25 or 33, when I can
> buy a 386DX-33 for the same money or much cheaper and later
> upgrade to a 486DX2-66?
> 
> I keep hearing all of this propaganda that I should buy a
> 486SX-25 or even a 386-40 and all I can say is 'why?' ....
> Where is the advantage to buy these machines?
> 
> "Oh, but the 486SX offers 2 to 3 times the speed!"  Yeah,
> but who cares...  The software today is slow on any machine
> and I don't see the software of tomorrow being any better.
> That increase in speed and increase in price with the decrease
> in upgradability just does not justify the cost. 
> 
> Oh sure, there are the luxuries of local-bus video and
> such associated with the 486's, but the way the video cards
> are optimized around Windows (Windows must die!!!), who knows
> what kind of benefits, if any, you are going to get from the
> extra couple hundred of dollars spent for it.

One good reason that you may want to go the 486 way (as long as you  
also go the LocalBus etc way; which may not be possible on a limited  
budget) is that you can then use cool things like NeXTSTEP 486 rather  
than xxxx things like Windows.

> (Windows must die!!!)

Exactly.  But 386s won't give you many options other than going back  
to DOS (if you consider that an option (shudder) ) and even Windows  
and Windows apps will soon need the power of 486+ to run adequately.

All these new things require not just speed but also fast video and  
fast data throughput, and lots of RAM.  No point doing all this and  
saddling it with a 386.

Bottom line:  If your budget is limited, stick with 386s, but  
recognize you're also stuck with Windows/DOS.  If you can afford  
more, get not just a faster chip but also better components.

--
-
Stefano Pagiola
Food Research Institute, Stanford University
spagiola@frinext.stanford.edu (NeXTMail encouraged)
spagiola@FRI-nxt-Pagiola.stanford.edu (NeXTMail encouraged)