Who cares
Web designers, graphic artists, Programmers, UI designers, Game designers...
1 over 4 equals 25%
Yes it does. I was going with the assumption that we were keeping a one-bit transparency mask.
Sure it does.
not necessarily. it has to do with how the CPU extracts information from memory. The actual arrangement of memory doesn't make a difference. memory is laid out differently (virtually) in the different CPU modes (real, Virtual x86, protected) but this has little effect over how the CPU reads memory. Physically, Memory layouts have changed dramatically; RAM could be interleaved or be sequences in banks, none of which matters to the CPU (which slurps things up via the memory controller, which feeds the CPU what it needs). of course an argument could be made that the "arrangement" for memory to use bytes has to do with it, which is true, but at the same time without suggesting a direct alternative I fail to see this as a particular constructive point.
It is probably harder for the CPU to extract that kind of awkward information.
it is. There is no 'probably' involved here. If each item is a byte, than reading the RGBA values is a case of reading four bytes. if we made them 7 bits each, we would still be using four bytes anyway, but rather than directly reading them we would have to perform various bitwise operations to get the proper values.
My point is that computers should be customized for skilled and interested people like you and (perhaps even me someday) and not for grandma or a threeyearold.
Ahh- I see. You're an elitist douchebag. I suppose we should only let skilled engineers buy and use microwaves, and force everybody else to just use an easy-bake oven?
I for one certainly hate that using and knowing about the computer itself isn't an art anymore.
knowing how to use a computer should not be an "art" anymore than being able to hold a paintbrush should be an art.
You never need to know what actually is happening inside the fantastic machine, you just need to "click".
Do you know what is happening inside a microwave when you use it? or a traffic light? or a PINpad? These are
details And when you are focused on the task these
details get in the way. Your argument could easily be extended to making sure that only people with an MIT degree and a business doctorate in finance are able to use a debit card. The argument fundamentally is about elitism. programmers, and even computer users- and evidently yourself- loved that smug sense of superiority they could get because they were familiar with a specific command line or what-have-you compared to the "unwashed masses" so they are, naturally, against the adoption of any technology that takes away their position of power. In those days the operator was a powerful being. They controlled what went into the machine, so the unwashed masses had to bow to their demands; otherwise they could decide to "lose" a users punch cards or "forget" to retrieve the printed output. This extends into the "DOS age"; I know about Extended Memory, Expanded Memory, Conventional Memory, High Memory Area, Upper Memory Blocks, File Control Blocks, etcetera. But does this make me "smarter" than a person who just wanted to use Lotus 1-2-3? Should that person have to bow to my knowledge
just to manage some financial spreadsheets?. No. That's downright ridiculous. Their job isn't to know what Expanded Memory or Extended memory or any of that NONSENSE is. It's a implementation detail and it should only be something that needs to be known by either the curious or those that write the software.
Computers are fantastic machines but I think that mainly technicians should be the ones to be able to fully control them (and not the other way around). So yes, you have revealed my achilles-heal. 
There is no reason for "mainly technicians" to control how computers are used. They aren't smarter than everybody else. This is the type of superiority complex that really annoys me to see in IT. Yes, Me, and probably you, know some things about how Computers work. Good for us, and if we can use that information for our various goals, good for us.
But, here's a news flash. Some people couldn't care less. Computers are a tool to them, and you know what, they are a tool. They aren't some magnificent creation that we need to bow down and worship, and only have specially trained priests and priestesses operate and consort with. Fact is, I'm not smarter than my neighbor because I can replace my hard drive. I'm not smarter than the old lady down the street because I can write programs. Fact is the only reason there are people like yourself clinging to what is fundamentally a religious zealotry to the superiority of those who "understand the machine" (and since you didn't know what a cycle-eater was, I somewhat doubt that in your case, to be fair), putting the operators on a pedestal as priests and priestesses to machines.
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