Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!cbmvax!daveh
From: daveh@cbmvax.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: What's a PC?
Message-ID: <1925@cbmvax.cbmvax.cbm.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 25-May-87 14:55:58 EDT
Article-I.D.: cbmvax.1925
Posted: Mon May 25 14:55:58 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 26-May-87 04:48:06 EDT
References: <716@bsu-cs.UUCP>
Organization: Commodore Technology, West Chester, PA
Lines: 45

in article <716@bsu-cs.UUCP>, jbwaters@bsu-cs.UUCP (J. Brian Waters) says:
> Summary: micro
> 
> In article <852@vu-vlsi.UUCP>, colin@vu-vlsi.UUCP (Colin Kelley) writes:
>> Was the mnemonic "PC" in wide use before IBM introduced theirs?  I'm sure
>> some people referred to Personal Computers, but wasn't the term Home Computer
>> most popular back in the late 70s?
>> 
>> 	-Colin Kelley  ..{cbmvax,pyrnj,bpa}!vu-vlsi!colin
> 
> The term I remember being most used before IBM gained domanince of the micro
> market, was microcomputers,  a quick check of some old KiloBauds, Dr. Dobbs and
> Bytes, Interface Ages, Creative Computings etc. seemed to confirm this.  It 
> seems to me then that using the term PC even (and especially when) refering to
> other computers is in a way a tribute to IBM's marketing power.  Thus I still
> only use it in refering to the IBM micro and its clones, though now that other
> companies are using the term for non-compatiables such as the Amiga, I fear it
> is a losing battle.
> J. Brian Waters   UUCP: {ihnp4 | seismo}!{iuvax|pur-ee}!bsu-cs!jbwaters

I recall hearing the term used in reference to microcomputers long before
the IBM machines were created.  Basically, a Microcomputer was any of the
set of small computers based on microprocessors, like an Altair, PET,
IMSAI, whatever.  A Personal Computer (PET = Personal Electronic Transactor)
was a subset of Microcomputer; a member of the set of ready-to-run computers
like the PET, Apple II, Exidy Sorcerer, etc. that you could go to a store, 
buy, plug in, and use immediately.  They didn't have to be built from a kit
or put together from a set of separate circuit boards by an expert.  A
Home Computer is a subset of Personal Computer; a computer appropriate for
the home that maybe hooks up to your TV and is very good at playing video
games, maybe not so good at performing business-related functions.

I'm sure IBM's prevalence has caused some of this history to be rewritten,
and while the distinctions were never that clear, they're been downright
cloudy for some time, like ever since Apple built the first Mac; a machine
that caught on for home users as an Appliance Computer before it was used
for any kind of business use, even though it was far more powerful than the
business PCs (IBMs PC[XT]) that prevailed at the time.  And now we have
Atari STs and Amiga 500s in the traditional Home Computer price range
(under $1000 for a complete working system) that are quite a bit more
powerful than the average business computer.
-- 
Dave Haynie     Commodore-Amiga    Usenet: {ihnp4|caip|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh
"The A2000 Guy"                    BIX   : hazy
	"These are the days of miracle and wonder" -P. Simon