PCs or Personal computers?

[Hinkel Y.]

It is for my computer engineering class and I want your oppinion... So I'm conducting a SURVEY!

“Not all Personal computers are PCS, but all PCS are Personal computers.” Do you think this is true or not?

[Joe Matt]

Originally Posted by Hinkel Y.

It is for my computer engineering class and I want your oppinion... So I'm conducting a SURVEY!

?Not all Personal computers are PCS, but all PCS are Personal computers.? Do you think this is true or not?

Not all Personal Computers are PCs, agreeded. Macs arn't PCs.

[evulish]

I'm confused. Isn't PC just an acronym for personal computer? I'd say any computer that's sitting on a desk in a house is a personal computer. (Not including a server or something) Err...are you talking about a PC or a PCS? I'm, yet again, still confused. I've heard PCS range from a fax machine, to a computer, to a cellphone. A PC is just a computer.

[MissInformation]

Originally Posted by evulish

I'm confused. Isn't PC just an acronym for personal computer? I'd say any computer that's sitting on a desk in a house is a personal computer. (Not including a server or something) Err...are you talking about a PC or a PCS? I'm, yet again, still confused. I've heard PCS range from a fax machine, to a computer, to a cellphone. A PC is just a computer.

I was confused too, so I went to my source, my computer Guru and here's what he had to say:

"PC stands for Personal Computer, but if you decide to narrow the definition of "PC" to be an IBM-PC compatible desktop computer, then you might consider MACs or laptops to be "personal computers", but not "PC's", or maybe you could consider a palm computer to be a "personal computer", but not a "PC". It all depends on what you define PC to mean.

So basically, it depends on if "PC" is being used to mean the generic "personal computer" or the the more specific "IBM-PC compatible [desktop] computer", or you could be even more strict and say "PC" is only the original IBM-PC series."

If my computer Guru says it, than it must be true (part of our contract, he'll give me advice but I cannot question it). And just because I have a suspicion that most of those "all are" type questions are usually trick questions (there's logic for you), I'll stick with not true as my answer.

Heidi

<=========>
and here I thought PC meant politically correct...

[Trashed20]

Originally Posted by MissInformation

and here I thought PC meant politically correct...

seriously, this made me laugh for a couple of minutes. So true.

[Wetzel]

The first and thrid option in the poll are the same thing worded diffrently.

Personaly, when I use the term pc I am refering to Windows compatable machines only. Mostly, I use neither personal computer or pc, just computer. I'm young enough (19) that I can not remember not having a computer at home.


Wetzel

[evulish]

Ehm...well, there's a difference. The first one means that PCs are personal computers and there is nothing else that can be considered a PC/personal computer. The third one means that PCs are in the category 'personal computers' along with other things. At least that's how I take it. Also, I probably switched the first and third ones around, but I think my point gets across. (The polls aren't shown in the thread view thing below reply, d'oh!)

[robot180]

I agree that it depends on what you are talking about. There are lots of computer terminology like that. For example, what is the definition of a home page? Here are a few that I can think of.

the main page of a website

the index file of a website (sometimes different than main page)

the page set to load when you connect to the internet, or open your browser

the opening page/main menu of a game or program

the computer's desktop (in Windows)

There are probably more.

[KenWittlief]

wow, I can think of so many acronyms for what 'PC' stands for

but none that I can put on this forum.

Words dont have meaning, only people have meaning - words are an attempt to communicate

so words only mean what we agree beforehand that they mean

therefore, there is no right answer to the question - but the best answer is that when you goto a computer store, they sell SW for PCs and for Macs.

[rbayer]

I definately agree with the sentence “Not all Personal computers are PCS, but all PCS are Personal computers,” but I had absolutely no idea what to vote for in the poll. To fully agree with the sentence, I'd have to vote for both choice one and choice two, but I can't do that, so I just stuck with the second option.