> ... the best technology is NEVER the cheapest technology. ...

i completely disagree.  any engineer who makes something that's more expensive
than it needs to be to get the job done is a bad engineer.  any consumer who
pays for more expensive technology than they need for the job at hand is an
idiot.

however, the total cost of ownership is higher than just the price tag, and
bad technology that's cheap to buy into almost always costs more in the long
run.  the thing wintel is good at is making these costs so indirect that they
appear negligible.  they're not.  the total cost of ownership of a vax -- any
vax -- was always lower than its competition -- even sun.  even when paying
DEC's rather high support contract fees.  the vax was a masterpiece of
engineering.  precisely because it took cost -- total cost of ownership --
into account.