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Hot take: Macs are technically PCs

Squidiey said:
I don’t like the term *PC* when people use it to refer a non-Mac since it stands for *Personal Computer*. and guess what? Macs are Personal Computers (aka. PCs)

So I prefer saying the following terms

Mac PC (If it’s made by Apple)
Non-Mac PC (If it’s made by a non-Apple company)
Click to expand...

Catchy.

But no, technically, this is correct. PC does stand for Personal Computer, but it does not mean all personal computers. It is a product name, much like Velcro was. All search engines are not Google, even if Google's name wer "Search".
A PC is a computer which system architecture is descendant from the IBM PC. A PC is a technical specification and all Macs do not comply with the spec and would not be able to run PC DOS and associated programs.
That said, with this level of nitpickitiness, an ARM based Windows computer is also not a PC - Language evolves, but the language has evolved to differentiate between Mac and PC. And that distinction is not without technical merit. Back in the day, a computer that was compatible with IBM PC software was called a "PC clone". Likewise, there were Macintosh clones.
 
Hey, Squidley:

Squidiey said:
Macs are Personal Computers (aka. PCs)
Click to expand...

dmr727 said:
With all due respect - this isn't much of a hot take. This kind of thing has been discussed since the early 80s, shortly after IBM released their PC in '81.
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JPack said:
IBM coined the term IBM PC.
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You're correct that Macs are literally personal computers. I've noted the observation made long ago and occasionally over the years, and I've made it myself.

It's probably fairest and most correct to say that, as with many other terms, there is more than one common usage of "PC". One sense is "a computer that's meant for use by one person" (this is the only definition in the Oxford Dictionary), and another is "a computer that runs Windows," established during the rise of IBM and embraced by Apple during its own rise with its lengthy and repeatedly-emphasized "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" ad campaign.

The IBM PC is also simply a product name. And since we capitalize initializations, it's hard to tell whether someone who says or types "PC" is using a proper noun or a common noun. (A "personal computer" is not necessarily an IBM "PC" in the same way a pencil is not necessarily an Apple Pencil.)

(I suppose I'd point out that some Macs – the same models people buy for themselves – are shared office computers, or classroom computers, both by function and by design intent. Are those Macs therefore not PCs in any sense?)
 
Steve Adams said:
wow, you need to get out more I think. if in conversation of tech, I always hear this.
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It maybe where we live. I'm in the UK, I'm guessing you're on the west coast of the USA somewhere as I imagine that's where grammar is failing the most 😉
 
BSDnostalgia said:
In re Wikipedia on PPC history: it really looked good for PPC. I'm not sure how that fizzled. ARM was able to pull it off, despite having what initially was an inferior architecture. PPC had low-power versions, but, I guess they never pulled off doing the ultra-low SOCs that made ARM the standard. (Somebody knows the inside story.)
Click to expand...

IBM wasn't interested in improving it at the rate that Apple needed.
 
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Like many others here, I fully understand what you're saying and I don't really disagree. Macs are just as personal to us as Windows computers are...

But man, I would never be caught dead saying "macOS PC" LOL
 
klasma said:
I have a personal work computer. I also had personal home computers. 😉

A non-personal computer would be a cloud computer, or a VPS, or a time-sharing system as they used to be called. A personal computer is a computer dedicated to a single user at a time.

But “PC” is generally understood to refer to Windows-capable x86 computers specifically.
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Uh oh, the fabled PWC and PHC strike! If I’m a personal computer person, but get frustrated, does that mean I abuse PCP?

Maybe that’s the timeshare I get calls about. They’ll help me access the computer at all times!

Yeah I’m well aware, having some fun with nomenclature.
 
Steve Adams said:
I am way closer to the UK in both geography and genealogy. Newfoundland Canada my friend.
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Canada, the best country in North America. Canada is the country that the USA should be. Polite, humble people and a universal health care system that works for all, not just the wealthy.

The closest I've been to Newfoundland is about 40,000 feet above it as I have familiy in Seattle so try to get over there once a year.
 
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I think the topic has been reasonably significantly addressed. Nonetheless...

My typical label choices: Mac or “PC” (or Windows PC). Sometimes I’ll say Apple computer or Apple device (e.g., for an iPhone).

casperes1996 said:
Catchy.

But no, technically, this is correct. PC does stand for Personal Computer, but it does not mean all personal computers. It is a product name, much like Velcro was. All search engines are not Google, even if Google's name wer "Search".
Click to expand...
I prefer to use the generic product name. Examples:

“Do a web search […]”/“Search the web for […]” (i.e., search engine) rather than “Google [it]”
— I was around when describing them as “web crawlers” was somewhat common. Ah, the simple Web.

“I need facial tissue.” rather than “I need (a) Kleenex.”

Liquid paper rather than White Out
 
casperes1996 said:
PC does stand for Personal Computer, but it does not mean all personal computers. It is a product name, much like Velcro was. All search engines are not Google, even if Google's name wer "Search".
A PC is a computer which system architecture is descendant from the IBM PC. A PC is a technical specification and all Macs do not comply with the spec and would not be able to run PC DOS and associated programs.
Click to expand...
"IBM PC" is a product name, "PC" is not. "PC-DOS" is IBM's branding of QDOS/86-DOS/MS-DOS with the IO.SYS and some utilities that depended on features of the IBM 5150 (and descendants) such as the IBM ROM BIOS and memory mapped video displays. The IBM PC did not properly support the gettime functionality of DOS which could report time to the nearest hundreth of a second. The 5150 was also gimped with a slow 8 bit bus version of the 8086 - an 8 MHz 8086 was 3 times faster than the 4.77MHz 8088 used in the 5150 and these were available a year before the 5150. The 8086 systems were capable of supporting more than 900KB of memory under MS-DOS.

The Apple II was promoted as a personal some four years before the 5150 was announced.
 
timber said:
I believe that historically it also has something to do with the fact that there was the literally called IBM PC (intel CPU and MS OS) which ended being the template for the PC Compatible market which in turn are the ancestors of today Windows PCs.
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This is exactly the origin.
 
Steve Adams said:
He's not wrong though. Both are computers, both are personal. They are all personal computers. They just run different operating systems. I cannot wait to try my new Macbook pc I am getting. ha ha. 😁
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That's right. But some operating systems that can be run on a personal desktop computer are actually designed for mainframes, where are many users and where connected many computer workstations.
 
Paul1964 said:
Canada, the best country in North America. Canada is the country that the USA should be. Polite, humble people and a universal health care system that works for all, not just the wealthy.

The closest I've been to Newfoundland is about 40,000 feet above it as I have familiy in Seattle so try to get over there once a year.
Click to expand...
The closest I have been to the UK is in Cape Spear, the most easterly point in North America. ha ha. We will get over there some day. I want to visit all of the area. So much history.
 
olavsu1 said:
That's right. But some operating systems that can be run on a personal desktop computer are actually designed for mainframes, where are many users and where connected many computer workstations.
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Some of my PCS were those mainframe servers. Had a full rack with systems and drives in it for awhile.
 
Hot take? That’s the coldest take since even before the turn of the century.
The only hot take is calling something a non-Mac PC. Good luck with that lol. Non-Apple company is wild as well.
 
olavsu1 said:
But some operating systems that can be run on a personal desktop computer are actually designed for mainframes,
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Which ones?

  • Unix was designed for mini computers, such as the PDP-11
  • Mainframe family of operating systems (z/os/ os/390, MVS) are able to run on a PC through emulation, I don't think they were ported for native execution
  • Linux while running on a mainframe was written on a PC for a PC and was basically he got frustrated with minix an open source unix like os
 
Squidiey said:
I don’t like the term *PC* when people use it to refer a non-Mac since it stands for *Personal Computer*. and guess what? Macs are Personal Computers (aka. PCs)

So I prefer saying the following terms

Mac PC (If it’s made by Apple)
Non-Mac PC (If it’s made by a non-Apple company)
Click to expand...

How PC of you. 🙂
 
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