Why not like Intel? (Score 1)

Why do Slashdot readers dislike Intel, please? I do not understand.

If I run Debian at home, if I have been programming in assembly language twenty years (beginning even on the Z-80 and the 6502), if I hold a master's degree in electrical engineering, if I once even owned an Amiga, then am I qualified to ask the question? I am willing to admit that I have neither ever programmed the Alpha nor the Sparc. Maybe those are better processors; I wouldn't know. But the i386 series of chips seems tremendous to me. I like these Intel chips. I like even better the fabulous library of in-depth technical documentation Intel posts up for our use on its FTP server.

Somebody in free-softwaredom doesn't like Intel. If you can and would explain the matter to me, I would certainly appreciate it. I simply cannot tell if the dislike of Intel is because

• Intel makes bad chips, but I'm too dumb to realize it,
• Intel is big,
• Intel is intimately associated with Microsoft (which indeed is evil) in someone's mind,
• some folks do not appreciate the magnitude of Intel's task in developing fast new processors which remain backward-compatible with a 25-year running legacy,
• Intel, unlike AMD, presents a consistent professional businesslike image,
• the Intel-bashers have never written an assembly language program and have no idea what they're talking about,
• Intel is imperfect and occasionally makes mistakes, or
• I just don't get it.

Please explain. Thanks.