> no idea how I would know whether this is fundamentally amazingly better than what I have now, if I were in 1978 for example.
For the start you should define what role you imagine you had in 1978.
Do you imagine working in some company that should decide which CPU to use for their new computer? Then the decisions were made exactly like now: you'd first consider the options with which you are more familiar, of for which you already had something "prepared." Second, you'd also want to avoid the option for which you have learned it has some weaknesses.
That's what moved the people in charge of building the first IBM PC, for example. They had experience with Intel, and also experience with developing using Intel chips.
In his previous post Ken linked to the text "A Personal History of the IBM PC" by David Bradley:
For the start you should define what role you imagine you had in 1978.
Do you imagine working in some company that should decide which CPU to use for their new computer? Then the decisions were made exactly like now: you'd first consider the options with which you are more familiar, of for which you already had something "prepared." Second, you'd also want to avoid the option for which you have learned it has some weaknesses.
That's what moved the people in charge of building the first IBM PC, for example. They had experience with Intel, and also experience with developing using Intel chips.
In his previous post Ken linked to the text "A Personal History of the IBM PC" by David Bradley:
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/MC.2011.232
The text is very informative, but behind a paywall.
Here's a TED talk by him too, which has the context explained for the public who aren't professionals, also nice it its own way:
https://www.ted.com/talks/dr_dave_bradley_how_did_ibm_create...