> On 06/05/2024 7:17 AM CDT Liam Proven via cctalk <cctalk@classiccmp.org>
> wrote:
>
> It isn't personal if an ordinary person can't afford it.
>
>
>
> That isn't _the people_. The People means hoi polloi. It means
> ordinary people. It means the masses. A personal computer is only
> personal if the person in question is an ordinary Joe.
>
To my mind, there are two things that define a computer as a personal computer.
The first is what you say above, affordable by the masses. The second is
"intended for" the masses.
When the Jan 75 issue of Popular Electronics came out I was 9 years old. I
didn't know the magazine existed, nor could I have afforded a subscription if I
did. But I knew what computers were, and I knew I wanted one. But they were
untouchable to me. I had seen one at my dad's office, and even seen some
programmers (up near the same category as seeing an astronaut to me.) But
having a computer was a dream, like owning an F-4 Phantom.
A couple of years later I saw the TRS-80 in a Radio Shack catalog. That was my
first sight of a "personal" computer. The price ($599?) was WELL outside what
I could afford, but it was achievable. AND... it was marketed toward "average"
people!
Until I saw the TRS-80, owning a computer was a dream. After, it was a goal.
I strongly suspect that many people felt much the same way when they saw their
own first personal computer, whether it was a TRS-80 or an Altair or whatever.
But very few had that reaction to, say, A 9830. And the masses didn't get a
flyer in the mail advertising a 5100 to them.
Just my 1/2 cent worth.
Will
Grownups never understand anything by themselves and it is tiresome for
children to be always and forever explaining things to them,
Antoine de Saint-Exupery in The Little Prince
