Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!rutgers!ucsd!ucsdhub!hp-sdd!hplabs!hpda!hptsug2!taylor
From: nat@bales.UUCP (Nathaniel Stitt)
Newsgroups: comp.society
Subject: Re: "Personal" Computers
Message-ID: <551@hptsug2.HP.COM>
Date: 28 Sep 88 17:26:18 GMT
Sender: taylor@hptsug2.HP.COM
Organization: Bales Scientific Inc., Walnut Creek, CA
Lines: 31
Approved: taylor@hplabs

I don't want to jump into the middle of a flame war over what seems to me
to be a subjective definition of what a "personal computer" is.  Let's just
say that each person has their own "personal definition" of "personal
computer".  Here's mine:

For me the main thing that makes a computer "personal" is *OWNERSHIP*.  If
I own a computer and can do with it as I will then that is a personal
computer no matter if it is a TRS-80 or a VAX 8600.  As it happens I own
a 386 AT clone running multi-user unix.  My roommate has an account, I have
a dial in modem and many of my friends have accounts, but this is *my*
*personal* *computer*.  If I want to erase all my friends files and trash
the hard disk, well, that is my right.  If I want to take out the motherboard
and break it into 100 pieces I could do that to.  I could even go so far
as to erase unix from my hard disk and only use MS-DOS from now on :->

The point is that I get to make all the decisions with respect to my own
personal computer.

On the other hand, the IBM-XT at work is NOT a personal computer because
it belongs to my boss and I have no right to trash all the files, or use
it as a boat anchor, or try to run unix instead of MS-DOS even though I
am the only one who uses it, because it is *not* *mine*.

The fact that computers are getting cheaper does not mean personal computers
will disapear, only that they will become more powerful.  15 years from now
my personal computer will probably have more CPU and mass storage and remote
users than the network of suns where I work today but it will still be my
personal computer.  I can hardly wait.


Nathaniel Stitt