PC and Linux and Mac

[DarkAmbient]

I'm kinda confused about this. A PC, short for Personal Computer right... still whenever I read about how some-software is available for PC, they refer to a computer with Windows installed. So if not a PC then what you got when you have a computer with Linux installed?

Also, a Mac. Is there any difference (hardware-wise) between a Mac and "a PC"? I know it were some before though.

[azangru]

still whenever I read about how some-software is available for PC, they refer to a computer with Windows installed.

They use the word PC to contrast it to Mac. Linux has been irrelevant till recently (and probably still is, I don't know).

Of course, what they should have written is "Operating System: Windows-number, OSX, GNU/Linux", but apparently they think it will be too complicated.

Anyway, recurring discussion? :)

[3Miro]

PC used to refer to the IBM hardware platform. Currently, this is the dominant platform and there are few machines that are not technically PC. Macs used to be different, but now they use Intel chips and the exact same hardware architecture as everyone else.

Conflating PC and Windows is wrong, but this doesn't stop people. The correct saying should be: Windows PC, Mac PC or Linux PC, to distinguish between the OS and to specify the hardware, i.e. a new Mac is Mac PC and old Mac is not a PC, also Linux works on many other platforms.

Linux vs GNU/Linux is a totally different story, this is about getting credit for contributions and not about hardware/software.

[DarkAmbient]

Thanks for clarifying. Do you think this is something that will get more attention in the future?

PS. We are all thankful to Richard Stallman. But calling it "GNU/Linux" doesn't sound as smooth as just "Linux". :)

[3Miro]

Thanks for clarifying. Do you think this is something that will get more attention in the future?


At my work, many people use Linux so you would often hear "Mac, PC or Linux". My guess is that this will get more broadly adopted as time goes on and PC will remain conflated with Windows.

The only way this can change is if a new architecture comes around to necessitate the distinction.



PS. We are all thankful to Richard Stallman. But calling it "GNU/Linux" doesn't sound as smooth as just "Linux". :)

I fully support GNU philosophy, but one of the biggest problems is the bad marketing and Linux is much better marketing name. Also they should have never used the term "free software", instead they should have gone for "freedom software".

[Lightstar]

Yeah, that's a misuse of a general terms.
A bit like how US Citizens use or claimed the term 'American'. (America is a continent, not a country).

I think it will take a few generations for people to stop those bad habits.
I found it especially funny and bad when seeing those Mac commercials. "Hello I'm a Mac" "And I'm a PC"...

[Ubun2to]

Technically, PC shouldn't be used to describe a computer with Windows on it. You own the hardware-not the operating system. You just pay Microsoft to be allowed to use their products.
Same thing goes for Mac.
The only true PC is one running Linux-that you truly own, as you don't have to pay for it, and there are no licensing issues.

[Kreaninw]

PC stand for Windows, Mac is Mac/Apple, Linux = Linux or what ever it's free, as of today Linux means Ubuntu.

Just accept it, it's nothing complicate, it's just too common to notice in the world of normal people(like me). :D

[Pinoy Tux]

Making a reference to "PC" to actually mean a "Windows-installed" computer has been a misnomer long lost in computing antiquity. It has been made generic and people just got used to it.

It's no different to, for example say, "have this document xeroxed," instead of "have this document photocopied." The former being wrong form since Xerox is a tradename. People just got used to it, at least over here where I live.

[Gone fishing]

I think the term PC is related to hardware, PC referred/s to x86 IBM compatible personal computers. Back in the 80s and 90s there were competing hardware platforms, RISC processor powered, computers like BBCs and Acorns, Computers based on the Power PC such as Apples and Amigas and of course the x86 IBM compatible.

Acorns and Amigas stopped being produced, Apple with OSX changed platform from Power PC to x86 Intel processors so now pretty much all Desktop computers are PCs mainly the 64 bit extension of the x86. PC has sometimes come to mean Windows computer, as Windows was for a long time was the dominant operating system on x86 computers, however, this is incorrect as Linux, FreeBSD and even Apples now run on PCs (x86 computers.)

However, with mobile devices we see the emergence of ARM RISC processors or the the re-emergence of the RISC processor Acorns used (ARM was a spin off of Acorns before Acorn collapsed.)

Post Edit


As of today Linux means Ubuntu

I don't think we can say this - as much as I like Ubuntu. Mint, Mageia, Fedora and Opensuse are all popular desktop distros and on servers Red Hat, CentOS and Debian are probably all installed more than Ubuntu server. However Ubuntu and its spin-off Mint are probably the dominant Desktop Linux at the moment.

[DarkAmbient]

Technically, PC shouldn't be used to describe a computer with Windows on it. You own the hardware-not the operating system. You just pay Microsoft to be allowed to use their products.
Same thing goes for Mac.
The only true PC is one running Linux-that you truly own, as you don't have to pay for it, and there are no licensing issues.

Good point!



As someone mentioned Youtube clip... (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-7HftowKzQ) <-- Annoying!

[alexan]

PC (Personal Computer: not professional computer, nor industry computer, not science computer etc.) as word define anythings which is considered


...hum...


... computer...



hum...


of personal kind. A "personal computer" basically.

Now, we have Apple that call their computer for personal use "Mac", and people think that's something different from a personal computer for real! :D
It's not about PC, Mac and Linux(?)... but only Personal Computer with different OS. The mess with PC and Mac is due only to Apple's skill to sell....





...words :P

[KiwiNZ]

PC (Personal Computer: not professional computer, nor industry computer, not science computer etc.) as word define anythings which is considered


...hum...


... computer...



hum...


of personal kind. A "personal computer" basically.

Now, we have Apple that call their computer for personal use "Mac", and people think that's something different from a personal computer for real! :D
It's not about PC, Mac and Linux(?)... but only Personal Computer with different OS. The mess with PC and Mac is due only to Apple's skill to sell....





...words :P

+1
They are PC,s

[DarkAmbient]

+2

As it is now. if a person would like to buy a PC, s/he could get a PC without Windows when s/he wanted it, or s/he could get a PC with Windows when s/he didn't.

We do have laws and standards for pretty much anything these days, why not for this?

If Linux were owned by a company, and lots of websites claimed their products worked on a PC. And with Linux running on (among else) a PC... I could imagine this company could sue them. Soo, (with yourself owning your own "Linux-copy") does that means the people could sue the websites that claim they got software working on PC's?

If this lingo were to be change, where does one start?

[SysBoot]

Technically, a Personal Computer can be a computer running Windows, Mac OSX, and GNU\Linux. A computer running Mac OSX has the same hard ware a computer running Windows and Linux has.

[Kreaninw]

I don't see by suing the companies which their products claim to work with PC, but in fact doesn't work with Linux, will actually work, at least not in law. It's just too familiar to be use as suing point.

I have never seen one in real life who called their Mac a PC, even PC itself never been use with laptop. And even laptop means Windows laptop, while a whole Mac Book series also called Mac.

It's not technically thing here. This might only apply to where I live though. Again, just see this thread's title, you will find the answer soon enough.

[Ubun2to]

I don't think we can say this - as much as I like Ubuntu. Mint, Mageia, Fedora and Opensuse are all popular desktop distros and on servers Red Hat, CentOS and Debian are probably all installed more than Ubuntu server. However Ubuntu and its spin-off Mint are probably the dominant Desktop Linux at the moment.

I think that saying "Linux=Ubuntu" is sorta true, when you consider that Ubuntu shows up before Linux on Google if you search for Linux.

[xedi]

Ubuntu shows up as first result only in my personalized search. If I am in private mode Ubuntu is second after the Wikipedia entry about Linux.