> >> Where are the choices for non-x86?
quoted text
> > 
> > The only remaining alternative is Sparc. Everything else is either old
> > (macppc) or expensive & unsupported (IA64).

I agree that sparc64 is currently the best alternative to the x86 
architecture in i386 and amd64.  For me, the biggest obstacles to 
buying a sparc64 machine are:

 * sparc64 machines the are significantly more expensive than their x86 
counterparts.

 * There is no binary emulator that would allow me to run proprietary 
software like Mathematica on sparc64.  (In contrast, I can run Mathematica 
on i386 with the Linux binary emulator.)

NetBSD has a Solaris binary emulator for sparc64, so with a little work it 
might be possible to remove this second obstacle.