OT - AMD/INTC

I've noticed that some of the analysts covering these stocks seem particularly clueless, but...Bernstein downgraded AMD to 'underperform'  with a $3 PT, claiming the next several quarters are challening and they're having trouble finding customers (AMD has risen 75% this year, trading just above $5 now). And, Bernstein raised INTC from 'underperform' to 'market perform' (they had downgraded it 3 months ago.)

I still don't want to buy INTC in the $30's, despite a 3% dividend. Back to the twenties and I'd  have to consider it.

And BTW - I had thought that MSFT changing their OS to a 'subscription service' meant that they were doing more of the same - making customers pay a yearly fee, and making updates mandatory. That's only true of their Office 365 program. What the 'subscription service' means is that you get free updates (almost like Apple, but not quite) until the 'end of life' (discontinued support) of the current version of Windows. That's a lot less egregious. I assume they've done it to force people to move to the new OS when 'end of life' (estimated as 3 to 4 years) is over. Understandable, given how many machines are running older versions of Windows, and Win 7 in particular, given the penchant users have for sticking with operating systems that actually work.

Also although their pronouncements on being able to upgrade to 10 with certain types of win 7 and win 8, but only until July ...28th I think are ambivalent, and keep changing, I had read an article which said you could upgrade from (win 7, for instance) to 10, and then roll it back to 7. You would still have a 10 'key' so you could upgrade it in the future if you chose - a means around the end-of-July end to the 'upgrade' offer. I would hope that you can just do a 'clean install' that was possible with their 'upgrade disks' of some previous OS versions. Upgrading Windows from a pervious runnnig version (like Vista to Win 7) to a newer one is fraught with problems, I've heard.

Sorry if I'm spreading news that all the tech-smart people here may already know in full.