I think of machines like these (disparate architectures (endianess, buses, processors)) as sort canaries, or watchmen for Good Code. NetBSD (my preferred OS) is

I think of machines like these (disparate architectures (endianess, buses, processors)) as sort canaries, or watchmen for Good Code. NetBSD (my preferred OS) is the same in supporting multiple architectures with one codebase, and I like to think it strengthens the operating system for all platforms.