I believe the term was coined at PARC and was to distinguish between a time-sharing system and a computer which was “yours” when you put your disk pack on it and sat in the room where you were. Thus the Alto and Dorados were personal as they melded to their user, when being used by that user, and then to the next user when the new pack was installed. Time-sharing systems were pretty much not customizable and were certainly shared.
.. -- Kenton A. Hoover ken...@nemersonhoover.org shib...@mail.marchordie.org +1 415 830 5843 On Jun 5, 2024 at 06:50 -0700, Bill Gunshannon via cctalk <cctalk@classiccmp.org>, wrote: > > > On 6/5/2024 9:33 AM, Bill Degnan via cctalk wrote: > > On Wed, Jun 5, 2024 at 9:03 AM Will Cooke via cctalk <cctalk@classiccmp.org> > > wrote: > > > > > > > > > > > > On 06/05/2024 7:17 AM CDT Liam Proven via cctalk <cctalk@classiccmp.org> > > > wrote: > > > > > > > > > > > It isn't personal if an ordinary person can't afford it. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > That isn't _the people_. The People means hoi polloi. It means > > > > ordinary people. It means the masses. A personal computer is only > > > > personal if the person in question is an ordinary Joe. > > > > > > > > > > To my mind, there are two things that define a computer as a personal > > > computer. The first is what you say above, affordable by the masses. The > > > second is "intended for" the masses. > > > > > > > > > > > So if a computer was built to be used by a single operator for general > > purpose use, open to any application development but cost more than the > > masses could afford, even if it was clear in the manual that the machine > > was manufactured and intended to be used for general purpose computing, > > it's not a "personal computer"? > > I think the term "personal computer" is impossible to define. Its > meaning will mean something different to just about anybody. Kinda > like "intelligence". Some accept IQ as a measurement. Some accept > membership in Mensa as a measure of very high IQ. I, on the other > hand, I see membership in Mensa a a factor requiring the subtraction > of at least 50 points from IQ because they were stupid enough to pay > someone for it. :-) > > bill
