<Reg, it's pretty-much impossible to buy a PC without a Microsoft OS shipping on it. So in that respect (buying a PC--I'm not talking about other platforms), consumers don't have a choice. But I guess you can't buy an Ultrasparc system without Solaris, an Apple without Mac, etc. :)>
You are starting to show your age now:-)
Macs are PCs. The original defeinition of PCs were IBM compatible, nobody gives a damn about IBM now, so now PCs are simply personal computers, of which MAC fits in nicely.
No, Reg, it's you who are showing your age ;-)
The term personal computer was first used in the 1970's, and meant a 6502 Apple or an 8080 CPM computer, or a TRS-80, commodore PET, Ohio Scientific, SOL, North Star, etc. IBM came out with the PC and co-opted the name at least half a decade after it was in common currency. They had the chutzpa to trademark the letters PC, which pissed us all off (those who were building their own PCs, and saw nothing personal about IBM.) That gall was of course what had enraged everyone in the first place about IBM and had something to do with the original (non-IBM) PCs being invented by enthusiasts. It also had a lot to do with early support for Microsoft and Apple as giant killers, Davids against Goliath as it were. We actually liked Gates and Jobs then! Much as Allen and Wozniak are still liked (at some degree of anonymous remove ;-)
Microsoft and Apple perhaps never understood the boost they got from that role vis-a-vis IBM in the hacker and programmer communities. They think they are clever manipulators, perhaps they think they invented our motivations? In any event, Apple has paid and Microsoft may pay the price for that ignorance.
While IBM has licked it's wounds, done some analysis, and these days smells like a rose. For now.
Chaz |
