ZoΓ« Blade's notebook

Personal computer

𐑐𐑻𐑕𐑩𐑯𐑩𐑀 𐑒𐑩π‘₯𐑐𐑿𐑑𐑼

Being born in the UK in 1981, my articles about home computers are biased towards that time and place. This is due to both my own personal experience, and also a conscious attempt to provide an alternative UK bias to the predominant US bias amongst English-speaking people my age reminiscing about home computers.

In the 1990s, a personal computer was a computer that's a bit more powerful than a 1980s home computer, but not as much as a workstation. It was very likely an IBM PC clone, and was very likely housed in a beige box.

As the definitions for both terms are hazy, it's debatable whether the Amiga and ST counted as merely home computers, or fully fledged personal computers. Each Macintosh is generally considered a personal computer, and the first was comparable to both.

Rather absurdly, perhaps an ST with a medium resolution monochrome monitor was a personal computer, as used in studios to make professional music, and in offices to design things with CAD software, while that exact same model of ST with a low resolution colour monitor was a home computer used for playing games.

Or perhaps the hallmark of a personal computer was its upgradability, leaving out the earliest models of Amiga and ST, which were hidden inside their keyboards rather than in separate beige boxes.

At any rate, once various companies cloned the IBM PC, in practical terms "PC" referred only to those clones, making the distinction moot. Since then, personal computers have steadily grown more powerful.

A notable exception is the Raspberry Pi series. These cute little machines aren't IBM PC clones, high spec, or upgradeable.

Types of computer: Cyberdeck | Home computer | Personal computer

Personal computers: Amiga | ST | Soviet ZX Spectrum clones