 Let's start with the basics, what is a "Computer" versus a "Smartphone" vs. a "Tablet"....
NAME
PICTURE
| DESCRIPTION
|
| COMPUTER
| A computer is a large device that usually runs Microsoft Windows or Mac OS (or Linux if you're someone like me ;) and is intended for heavy duty data processing, creation, and heavy use beyond what would be convenient with your phone. People say you can do "everything" with your phone, and in a way, that is "somewhat" true, but for the sake of simplicity, it is not. You wouldn't process a 3050 row Spreadsheet on your cell phone, right? You wouldn't write a 5 page college thesis in Google Docs on your iPad? Kapis? You would not play a fully 3D realistically rendered First Person Shooter on a device whose only contol is a godforsaken touchscreen - got it? So THAT is what a computer is for. They range from the humble ultra-portable laptop which has outshined the larger, and generally a little more powerful DESKTOP computer. I'm writing this on a desktop PC right now, and backing up a movie collection, and running a Windows 7 virutal machine for patch editing on a guitar processor right now. You can't do that conveniently, quickly, quietly, or easily, on a Android phone.
|
| SMARTPHONE
| The Smartphone became ubiqutous when Apple created the first "Affordable" (But still blood-curdling expensive) iPhone back in the 2000's. AFter that, because of it's lineage to the mp3 player, the iPod (the original on-the-go device), everyone slowly started to gravitate to using their phone for f***ing EVERYTHING. Apps, games, productivity, but let's face it, phones did not get that liberating moment that we got when IBM created the PC. Maybe in the future, the Smartphone (or even Smart Watch) will become a nuclear device that can be expanded to fit any function, but until then, the Smartphone is best kept for calling people, texting, doom scrolling on social media, and raising your heart rate reading the news.
|
| TABLET
| The tablet is nothing more than a larger Smartphone. That's about it. Some even can use your phone plan and make calls. Basically, it's meant to be a larger device that "feels" like a book, but functions like a smartphone, but because of the bigger screen, may (or may not) be more usable. Still to me, you can't really do the things you can do with a computer, with a tablet, because of a limited interface. They don't come with a keyboard and trackpad as a stock item, you have ot buy them, and even then, the software isn't always the same or as compatible with these devices as it would be on a regular computer. That's why I say, want to play Angry Birds? Great. But if you need to create a pivot table and a presentation - probably better to go use something running MacOS or Windows.
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Another Table - Mac vs. Windows vs. Linux
Now, we will explain the "Triad" of computers in most popular use today by their operating system, because that has now become the most defining characteristic. It used to be in the 1980's and 1990's, we called PC's "IBM Compatibles" - but IBM sold their PC business to Lenovo in 2004, and there were far more "Clones" than actual IBMs out there (Compaq, Dell, HP (aka. Hewlett Packard), NEC, Gateway (2000), Packard Bell, E-Machines, and the list goes on and on). So these days we focus on what O/S it can run, even though it's really just two types of hardware that both can run Linux if you choose - which is the third.
| Category
| (IBM Compatible) PC
| Apple Macintosh
| Linux
|
| PICTURE
| 
| 
| 
|
| BRANDS
| Alienware, Dell, Everex, Gateway, NEC, ASUS, Samsung, Lenovo, HP (Hewlett Packard), Compaq (actually HP), and the list goes on and on...
| Apple, that's the only people who make them.
| Pretty much anything above an i486 CPU for modern purposes....so a megaton!
|
| PROCESSOR
| Typically uses processor chips made by Intel and AMD (ie Athlons, Core i-series....basically anything with "Core" "Pentium" or "on" at the end of the name)
| Currently Apple M1 Silicon, previously they used the same CPUS as PC's, before that, ironically IBM PowerPC CPU, and before that, the Motorola 68000
| Anything and everything fast enough to run a kernel new enough to do modern tasks
|
| OPERATING SYSTEM
| Microsoft Windows
| Apple MacOS
| Linux is the name of the operating system, the hardware is widely variant
|
| FURTHER INFO
| A "PC" is pretty much still generally seen as a "serious" machine. They started off primarily as Business Machines made by IBM (International Business Machines), and were aimed at business. Today, they still are, but they also have a niche market with the "gaming PC" crowd as well as the hardware is open enough to allow many businesses to get into the game. A big reason the PC never went away is worldwide corporations putting billions and trilions of dollars into an infrastructure started by IBM and Microsoft in the early 1980's. As IBM, Microsoft, and the PC lexicon became more essential, and grew, eventually eclipsing Apple (and threatening their existence as a whole), the more the corporate world has been "locked in" to the use of Desktop PCs. It's like the Fender Stratocaster guitar of computers - everyone has one, and it's been copied and imitated more than anything else in it's market.
| A "Mac" as they are commonly called, is basically an Apple computer - usually a MacBook, iMac, or Mac Mini, running some form of Mac OS (Macintosh Operating System). Unlike Microsoft, Apple became known as that "trendy" PC because it found a niche in the entertainment industry, and celebrities talked about them a lot back in the early days. Honestly, modern Tech Bro culture pretty much grew out of Apple's whole thing of having Steve Jobs in a turtleneck on stage with celebrities talking about an otherwise generally "nerd" device. Apple sells astronomically more iPhones and iPads than they do iMacs, but they still sell quite a lot of them, and they tend to be liked much by the rich, people who want to look rich or famous, and people who want to look trendy. That said, they are no more or less usable than a Windows PC, and have all the same fallabilities and problems AS a PC. They also cost about twice as much as a comparable PC, and lock you into a "walled garden" (a scenario where the company making the hardware and software force you to use only their approved products, something MIcrosoft is also following suit with as well with Windows 11 and later), and tend to treat your computer like it's something they "loaned" you for the "right" to use "their" Operating System.
| That "Linux Thing" is just an operating system that is free (for personal use at least) and runs on any computer that's been released that the kernel is capable of suporting (the kernel being the "core" of the operating system that makes it work for lack of better words). Linux is generally the somewhat commercially polarizing operating system mostly run by non-profits and corporations who will let you compile their code for free but may still charge if you want a fully compiled commercial version for SOME of their software. Most other software falls under the "FOSS" acronym - meaning "Free Open Source SOftware" which is the original, and the attracting spirit of using Linux. It's polarizing because the other two love to spread lies about Linux, while Linux nerds....well some, have got to be some of the most condescending pricks I've ever met in a forum on the internet, making support tough...I'm looking to change that. Linux will run on a computer as old as 15 years old well enough to do basic tasks and can really unleash the beast on some kind of high memory, high speed fire breather like the hot-rodded Lenovo I'm typing this on tonight. Linux has started gaining traction because it's not tethered to any one "distribution", nor any singular figurehead (except maybe Linus Torvalds who created LInux in 1989 as a personal project, but he's not a tech bro billionaire with his own personal ted talk every time a new Kernel is released, he just sorta states the facts and stays out of the way from what I can tell). If you want to know more about LInux, go read my other sections on these pages because that's what I primarily use, and that's what I primarily support.
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