Good to have on hand. If you use it, just remember not to screw it in (on either end) if the system will likely be moved. The construction is quite fragile, and resoldering the connectors is very unpleasant. Best to have one end or the other slip off harmlessly. Not sure what you mean here: Compaq C/C++ for AlphaLinux is free already, and Alpha C/C++ for Tru64 and OpenVMS are both included in the relevant hobbyist programs. IBM xlC/xlC++ and SGI MIPSpro would be very nice (although Apple's contributions to GCC for POWER/PowerPC have made it infinitely better). I saw on USENET a blurb about "repurposing" the included MIPSpro kernel compiler as a general-purpose C compiler with the addition of a few symlinks, and the word on the street is that MIPSpro 7.4 could, ahem, possibly be used for a few times while one is trying to locate the regrettably misplaced license code, with only a nag screen coming up. I'm trying to get into the dev program, though. We'll see what happens.