Timeline for Is PC used as an English expression for a computer in English speaking countries?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
23 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| May 8, 2021 at 13:46 | comment | added | draca | I had a personal computer that we called a PC before the IBM PC was released, so I know the term did not originate with IBM because I remember thinking it was interesting that IBM was trying to trademark the PC acronym that we were already using (Mine was an Atari 400 which competed with the TRS-80 and Apple II back then) | |
| May 8, 2021 at 9:41 | comment | added | TylerH | @JörgWMittag You may be suffering/benefiting from having been around at the time they were released, but I've definitely heard people refer to Apple IIs as Macs (mostly folks under 30 or so). Not a big deal, because OP is talking about Apple computers in 2021. You won't find Apple IIs or Lisas for sale by Apple anymore, only in museums or articles about "really ancient computers". | |
| May 8, 2021 at 9:38 | comment | added | TylerH | While Apple computers are not referred to as PCs, they are referred to as "computers", still. For what it's worth. | |
| May 8, 2021 at 1:43 | comment | added | Austin Hemmelgarn | @JörgWMittag The use of ‘PC’ as an acronym in reference to Apple systems (even when ‘personal computer’ is an accurate description) has not been common for at least a decade due to Apple’s own advertisements (the old ‘Get a Mac’ campaign from 2006 through 2009). Even prior to that though, the distinction that a Mac was somehow different from a PC was common, because once the IBM PC clones started popping up, the term PC very much solidified as referring to such systems and almost nothing else. | |
| May 7, 2021 at 18:43 | comment | added | Jörg W Mittag | "For historical reasons, computers made by Apple are typically not referred to as PCs. They're Macs." – Huh? Apple itself referred to the Apple II as a "personal computer" in its advertisements: "Introducing Apple II. You've just run out of excuses for not owning a personal computer." Not a single person in the world has ever referred to an Apple II or a Lisa as a "Mac". | |
| May 6, 2021 at 16:33 | comment | added | jamesqf | @Tonny: I wouldn't say that ALL computers would be considered PCs. E.g. the several IBM BlueGenes I've worked with weren't. Even various clusters, even though they were made of units that could be stand-alone PCs. And back in the early days (before Linux, basically), there was a distinction between PCs and workstations that usually ran some Unix variant. | |
| May 6, 2021 at 16:30 | comment | added | Darrel Hoffman | To further muddy the waters, there was a line of computers called "PowerPC"s, which were Apple computers. The name "PowerPC" technically referred to just the processor, which was IBM, but in common use it referred to the whole computer, a rare case where an Apple product had "PC" in the name. | |
| May 6, 2021 at 15:25 | comment | added | Barmar | @ColleenV Indeed, it's again context dependent. If you see a kiosk in the metro, it's just a kiosk; but if a bug causes it to show a Windows error screen, now it's a PC. | |
| May 6, 2021 at 15:21 | comment | added | ColleenV | @Barmar so is my xbox console, which is basically just a PC with a certain configuration and OS, a PC or a console? Is the raspberry pi based space station tracker connected to my TV a PC? Or is it only the raspberry pi 400 personal computer kit that qualifies? There’s more than just “personal” involved in PC I think. There’s also the idea of “general purpose”. | |
| May 6, 2021 at 14:30 | comment | added | Barmar | Context is used to disambiguate "PC". If you're in a context where the Mac/Windows distinction is relevant, PC means Windows PC. If you're in a context where portability is important, it means desktop rather than laptop. But in more general contexts, it means anything that isn't a mainframe (or minicomputer -- does anyone still use that term any more?). | |
| May 6, 2021 at 14:25 | comment | added | Torque | PC for (desktop) computer is also used disambiguation when talking about gaming - console gaming, mobile gaming versus PC gaming or PC gamers. | |
| May 6, 2021 at 13:47 | comment | added | David42 | @Zenzizenzizenzic That's right. The term "personal computer" was already in wide use when IBM released the IBM Personal Computer. The term dates back to at least 1962. When the term was coined computers were huge machines in rooms by themselves with operators standing by. In contrast a future "personal" computer would be placed on a table for one person to use. That incidentally is why servers are not, as ilkkachu points out, servers are not "personal computers" even if they are compatible with the IBM PC. | |
| May 6, 2021 at 11:34 | comment | added | Zenzizenzizenzic | Commodore referred to the Amiga line as "Amiga Personal Computers" | |
| May 6, 2021 at 11:06 | comment | added | nick012000 | @ilkkachu "Macintoshes of old weren't PC compatible, but then Macs have used Intel processors for 15 years, and those might be surprisingly PC compatible" I'm aware. Hence, "historical reasons". | |
| May 6, 2021 at 11:01 | comment | added | ilkkachu | Macintoshes of old weren't PC compatible, but then Macs have used Intel processors for 15 years, and those might be surprisingly PC compatible. (Not sure about the details, though, and one could wonder how "IBM PC compatible" current PCs are anyway.) Also, you probably wouldn't call a rack server a "PC", even though the hardware inside is similar to a desktop PC, equally (in-)compatible, and could run the same operating systems etc. And a Raspberry Pi probably isn't a PC, even if you use it as your personal desktop computer. The phrase "PC" is vague enough to be mostly meaningless, really... | |
| May 6, 2021 at 10:56 | comment | added | Tonny | @rjpond I am an IT guy and consider all computers "PC's" but I need to be constantly aware that the majority of my customers tend to distinguish between laptop and PC (for desktops and towers). Not keeping that in mind can lead to a great deal of confusion. | |
| May 6, 2021 at 10:03 | comment | added | rjpond | Even though in principle a PC can be a laptop, in practice many people use the term "PC" to refer mainly or solely to desktops. It's not common to hear the phrase "laptop PC". And if someone has a laptop, it's much more common for them to refer to it as their laptop than as their PC, even if they don't have any other PCs. Many people also say things like "Should I take a PC or laptop for uni? Laptops are more portable but then a PC is more powerful" ( thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1970790 ). That may not please pedants or IT experts, I agree. | |
| May 6, 2021 at 8:39 | history | edited | nick012000 | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 36 characters in body
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| May 6, 2021 at 8:37 | comment | added | gidds | Might be worth making even more explicit that ‘PC’ is a countable noun: one PC, two PCs (as the question could assume otherwise). | |
| May 6, 2021 at 8:26 | comment | added | CharybdeBE | As an off-topic addition : PC is widely used in the french speaking world too | |
| May 6, 2021 at 1:19 | comment | added | randomhead | And to add to @David's answer, Apple Macintosh computers were not "IBM PC Compatible." | |
| May 6, 2021 at 1:06 | comment | added | David42 | This historical reason is that in 1981 IBM produced a computer called the IBM Personal Computer. The name was abbreviated "IBM PC". Other companies made compatible computers which they described as "IBM PC compatible". This got shortened to "PC Compatible" and then to just "PC's". | |
| May 6, 2021 at 0:32 | history | answered | nick012000 | CC BY-SA 4.0 |