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Article #757Re: "Personal" Computers
From: Jakob Nielsen
Date: Mon, 29 Aug 1988 23:46
Date: Mon, 29 Aug 1988 23:46
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1422 bytes
I would agree with the definition that a personal computer is one that is dedicated to a single user. If an IBM PS/2 is used with Unix to support 5 terminals, then it is not a personal computer even though the same hardware can certainly be used as such. The most important point, however, from my perspective as a user interface specialist, is that a personal computer dedicates all its computing resources to support the user interface: It can give a much broader bandwidth in the human-computer communication than a non-personal computer. Let's take the good old traffic analogi: A bus is like a mainframe: public transportation/computing - the advantage is that other people take care of maintaining it etc. Your own car is like a personal computer. You can get the same servise (actually better) from a taxi, which could perhaps correspond to "de luxe" time shared interfaces, but it is still not as responsive to your needs when you need transportation Christmas Eve etc. Jakob Nielsen
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arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!purdue!decwrl!hplabs!hpda!hptsug2!taylorShow Full Headers
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Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!purdue!decwrl!hplabs!hpda!hptsug2!taylor From: DATJN@NEUVM1.BITNET (Jakob Nielsen) Newsgroups: comp.society Subject: Re: "Personal" Computers Message-ID: <474@hptsug2.HP.COM> Date: 29 Aug 88 23:46:52 GMT Sender: taylor@hptsug2.HP.COM Organization: Tech University of Denmark Lines: 20 Approved: taylor@hplabs