
64-bit vs 32-bit
does a web server really need to be 64-bit to work? Have seen at least one web development contract where customer requirement dictates x86_64 but no reason whatsoever for that. Mindset is probably a bigger hurdle than availability of an O/S.
Better still, if a mainstream server vendor - or better still, a major vendor with a server business but other revenue lines so a little freedom to experiment (Cisco, Oracle) - could see the value in doing mixed-architecture blades, the way Sun had briefly (you could at one point have a 6000 chassis with Opteron, Xeon, and SPARC all in same enclosure, with one enclosure meeting whatever mix of workload) then that would be interesting. Focus on quality not low price (so no "low sticker price" servers that then break the bank when you add normal things like LOM at £200, or rack rails at £100 a pair). Maybe not as blades, maybe more as smaller units, and with pizza-box equivalents, then people could decide "actually, my database needs to be 64-bit because of software version, but my image cache server can be whatever's cheap". Let customers decide, not manufacturer;s marketing departments.
If they get this right - and not just Calxeda but the other players, obviously - then things could become far more interesting than they have been for a while.