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POWhy is x86 ugly? Why is it considered inferior when compared to others?
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copied!<p>Recently I've been reading some SO archives and encountered statements against the x86 architecture. </p> <ul> <li><p><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2667256">Why do we need different CPU architecture for server & mini/mainframe & mixed-core?</a> says<br> "<em>PC architecture is a mess, any OS developer would tell you that.</em>"</p></li> <li><p><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/82432"><strike>Is learning Assembly Language worth the effort?</strike></a> (<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130801000534/https://stackoverflow.com/questions/82432/is-learning-assembly-language-worth-the-effort" rel="noreferrer">archived</a>) says<br> "<em>Realize that the x86 architecture is horrible at best</em>"</p></li> <li><p><a href="http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=976577" rel="noreferrer">Any easy way to learn x86 assembler?</a> says<br> "<em>Most colleges teach assembly on something like MIPS because it's much simpler to understand, x86 assembly is really ugly</em>"</p></li> </ul> <p>and many more comments like</p> <ul> <li><p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=276418" rel="noreferrer"><em>"Compared to most architectures, X86 sucks pretty badly."</em></a></p></li> <li><p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=276459" rel="noreferrer">"<em>It's definitely the conventional wisdom that X86 is inferior to MIPS, SPARC, and PowerPC</em>"</a></p></li> <li><p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=276471" rel="noreferrer">"<em>x86 is ugly</em>"</a></p></li> </ul> <p>I tried searching but didn't find any reasons. I don't find x86 bad probably because this is the only architecture I'm familiar with.</p> <p>Can someone kindly give me reasons for considering x86 ugly/bad/inferior compared to others.</p>

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