Bar B Q wrote:

E wrote:

This is where it gets interesting. Why doesn't Microsoft have an x86-64
version ready of Windows XP? Will Linux companies pick up the slack, and
ban together with AMD to take some of the Windows and Intel market share?

why doesn't Intel and AMD adopt Linux and produce their own distros
optimized to their chips?

why do they have to deal with m$oft at all ?

why not certify Linux chips with optimized kernels?



I didn't really mean that open source companies would literally band
together with AMD, maybe just a temporary de facto alliance.

But I like your ideas better. Even with Intel, since Intel has there own
compiler, that is as far as I know, free to use with Linux for
non-commercial use. And who would know how to create a compiler for an
Intel chip better than Intel? Although I also read that it still has some
problems with Linux kernal compiles, it seems to be getting better.
Application compiled with the Intel compiler benchmark a bit higher in a
lot of areas according to what I have read. So far I guess this is just
for regular 32 bit x86.

AMD has teamed up with Portland and STMicroelectronics to create a compiler
for x86-64 and Linux...

http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors
DevelopWithAMD/0,,30_2252_2272_7640,00.html

And there is this from a privately held company called Pathscale
http://www.pathscale.com/