> How did that become the state of the industry, with so many smart people working so hard and nobody likes their latest designs? The average consumer doesn't

> How did that become the state of the industry, with so many smart people working so hard and nobody likes their latest designs? The average consumer doesn't buy a fantastically well designed CPU if it doesn't run the software they care about. x86, externally, is horrifically ugly primarily because of backwards compatibility (I've legitimately had a nightmare once from writing an x86 JIT compiler). Internally, I'm almost certain it's an incredible feat of engineering. People who admire architecture aren't a powerful market force, I'm sad to say.