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TeachMeHisty said:
What exactly is a "personal computer" anyways. What defines such a system, what causes it to be differenciable from other systems? Honestly interested. |
Well, historically the term came up to differentiate computers you had at home that was a new thing, compared to the big cabinets or even rooms that were early computers in business, military and universities. These computers had to be installed. So the wave of miniaturization allowed to shrink computers down to the size they could be used in a household, as a personal device. Hence the term personal computer. In that sense the term includes tablets, phones and video game consoles, all computers used as a personal device. But it goes on: IBM who was big in the big business computers felt left behind by the new trend and at one point decided to enter the market. So they designed a personal computer, which consequently was called an IBM PC. As they needed an Operating System they asked the then pretty unknown company Microsoft. Over time the IBM PC became sort of an industry standard, with it outer connections for printer and keyboard and inside at how extension cards could be put in, so many competitors built IBM PC compatible PCs. Over time the IBM was shed and PC remained, which by then mostly meant a PC that followed these standards established by IBM. But these were also changing, serial and parallel ports were replaced by USB, the internal makeup changed, the connection to the monitor changed multiple times. So modern PCs aren't actually very 'IBM compatible' PCs anymore. Also non-IBM compatibles like Macs are started to be included again in the PC nomer (they would be by the original usage, but are clearly not IBM compatible). So yeah, what PC means has changed and shifted and is today still very much in flux.
Last edited by Mnementh - 2 days ago
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