Lots of excellent answers but this is the best response that gets to the core of the question (don’t know how to make a link to an answer, so pasting it here):
> Processor architectures come and go. The history of the 68k architecture is perfectly normal. It's the x86 that's anomalous. I believe that is the result of Microsoft's peculiar inability to switch architectures. No other software company seems so stuck: they move opportunistically to whatever architecture suits their immediate needs. Apple has evolved 6502->68k->PPC->x86->ARM. –
John Doty Sep 25 at 12:14
> Processor architectures come and go. The history of the 68k architecture is perfectly normal. It's the x86 that's anomalous. I believe that is the result of Microsoft's peculiar inability to switch architectures. No other software company seems so stuck: they move opportunistically to whatever architecture suits their immediate needs. Apple has evolved 6502->68k->PPC->x86->ARM. – John Doty Sep 25 at 12:14