Should have said IMO. I think you're dead wrong because I don't think AMD HAS lost a lot of support. You may not see a lot of supporters posting, because if you are old enough (or young enough if you are too old) then you might remember the complete ridiculing dished out by intel supporters and marketing. I think you'll see a quite different landscape of support when AMD's vision of the future, which they've been preparing for 5 years, really surface in a couple months time. Don't be surprised by the support that will swell in AMD's favor, no matter how much FUD is spread between now and then.
Also, I think you'll find that many supporters of AMD products aren't merely supporting them for loyalty, fanboi, etc reasons like you suggest, but out of principle and the desire for a healthy marketplace that has been held hostage by intel for 20 years. Obviously, anyone can support whoever they want and be on whichever side of the fence they choose. It's too bad the vast majority of consumers are uninformed on the practices of the x86 market over the last 2 decades of rule by intel. You'd think that the informed technically savvy crowd would want better though.
I've seen enough posts to indicate that they have, in two forms.
The first and most common is financial support. People just couldnt justify buying AMD products when they knew Intel products were superior. Yes, price points and all that, but lets face, Intel has made some very competitive products.
The second, and less common but still occurring, is, err, moral support, like me. I had an Athlon K7-700, then an Athlon XP 2400+, then an Athlon X2 5600+, and now an Athlon II X4 620. I might buy Bulldozer if its good, but I think I'm done rooting for AMD in the moral sense. What Intel did to the market years ago was terrible, and no doubt AMD still feels the hurt today. However, as far as we know, those practices have stopped, and Intel not only paid money to both Nvidia and AMD, and a lot of it, they have also had to pay fines to the FTC and the EU, as well as enter into technology sharing agreements that they probably didnt want. You might say, they've faced the music. Since then, they make great products, they release them on time. AMD..... hasnt done anything exciting since the Phenom II. That was years ago, and even that wasnt enough to properly stick it to Intel.
No doubt Bulldozer will perform well and sell well - from what I've read its awesome. And, in today's landscape, AMD might actually be able to sell a few, unlike in earlier years where it was impossible. I feel that the moral duty of supporting AMD because of Intel's foul play has pretty much now passed, and now I face the choice of a company that cant seem to organize a pissup at a brewery, or a company that, well, just works.
