The first microcomputer was the kit in Popular Electronics (1974?). Technically, though none of those were PCs. They were called microcomputers. IBM called their microcomputer the Personal Computer or PC. By extension all the subsequent clones of the IBM are PCs. Now-a-days the term is used willy-nilly for anything that is not a server, but is actually incorrect.
Much of the reason for Apples software stability is the Apple philosophy, "We support Apple hardware only". Where other brands of computers may have almost any hardware from any manufacture in it Apple only has to support Apple hardware that simplifies the task immensely.
If limited hardware availablity, and limited software availablity, and higher cost is not a problem to you then Apple is a good choice. OTOH...
Cameron Hood wrote:
Doug Franklin wrote
Uhhh. There weren't no .386 stuff when PCs or DOS was invented. The iAPX386 chip didn't come out until several years later. PCs used the 8088 chip which was an 8-bit external bus version of the 8086, which had a 16-bit external bus. Both had 16-bit internal busses.
I rest my case: Mr. Franklin is a perfect candidate for a PC. The rest of us should be on Macs; far less aggravation. And I'm sorry, I can't remember the exact details of crashes that happened five years ago.
And historically, I guess, computers didn't really become common until Dos 2.0 and later. And, BTW, the original PC was a MAC (Apple).
C.
-- graywolf http://graywolfphoto.com