On 2024-05-25 5:42 p.m., Mike Katz via cctalk wrote:
I'm sorry but I beg to differ with you here. The DEC PDP line of single
user interactive computers (as opposed to batch processing only systems)
started in the late 1950's and early 1960's and spawned many generations
as well as copies and other companies (Data General being the most well
known of these).Yes multi user time sharing operating systems we added
later on but initially they were single user interactive, (DEC 10 & 20
excepted).Does a computer lose its "Personal" identification if it can
handle multiple users as an option. There were multiple user time
sharing Operating Systems for many early personal computers (Unix,
Xenix, MP/M, Uniflex, OS/9, etc.). Even the aforementioned PDP computers
ran multi-user time sharing systems. Does that, then, invalidate them
for consideration as a personal computer? Does that make any Linux
machine not a personal computer, by definition, because it can handle
more than one user or task? As I have said earlier in this thead and its
fore bearers, the term Personal Computer is so non-specific that we can
argue from here to Alpha Centauri and back without coming up with an
agreed upon definition. So, until a concrete definition can be made, the
discussion of the answer is completely moot. I stick by my original
challenge, find a calculating device that predates the Antikythera
Mechanism (36 BCE). Simple measuring devices like the sun dial and
sextant don't count as they don't calculate, they measure.
I think the most important thing for a Personal Computer,
is the average Joe, can afford and use it. The second thing is
to have ample memory and IO to run useful programs. The basic Apple
I,II does not count as many others as it had BASIC in ROM and tape IO.
The third thing is a real OS. Nobody has one, as a personal computer.
CP/M and MSDOS does not handle IRQ's. Unix for the PDP-11 is real
operating system but not personal as it requires a admin,and a swapping
media.
