I own a Mac. Should I buy a pc to learn programming? Most tutorials people use pc.
Posted by Icy_Equipment_2617@reddit | learnprogramming | View on Reddit | 32 comments
Should I buy a pc even thought I have a MacBook Air and Mac mini?
ShadowRL7666@reddit
A Mac is a pc.
tenniseman12@reddit
Technically yes, but most people use PC to refer to Windows/Linux based systems
ShadowRL7666@reddit
Most people are wrong then. PC simply just stands for personal computer. Instead op could have asked should I get a windows based PC.
tenniseman12@reddit
No, because it’s standard to refer to non-Mac systems as “PC”. It doesn’t matter that Mac are technically PCs as well
ShadowRL7666@reddit
It’s not but sure. Just because you can say something doesn’t mean it’s right. Stop trying to argue a wrong point.
ScholarNo5983@reddit
You'll have to blame Jobs for the confusion as Apple for years pushed the idea the Macintosh was something totally different to the lowly PC.
Here is just one of many such examples: I am a Mac | I am a PC
ShadowRL7666@reddit
Technically we can blame IBM.
ScholarNo5983@reddit
Why would IBM be to blame for the fact most people don't think the Mac is a PC?
Apple was the one pushing that idea and their advertising campaigns were so effective they create the myth the Mac was totally different to the PC.
Their advertising campaigns were so effective, Macs became fashion statements, which is evident from TV and movies from that time, where colorful Macs always found their way into the background as a prop.
You never saw a PC as they were geeky and akward, just like my earlier link indicated.
ShadowRL7666@reddit
The original meaning of PC is personal computer. But in the early 80's, IBM used the term as the name of one of their models: the IBM PC. After that, IBM made more computers which were compatible with the IBM PC (compatible means they could run the same softwares) and other companies produced their own compatible products. All the computers in that family are called "IBM PC compatible", which turned to just "PC" for short.
So now PC doesn't really mean personal computer anymore, it means a specific family of personal computers: the heirs of the original IBM PC (today those are the computers that run Windows natively).
ScholarNo5983@reddit
The PC found in the first IBM PC stands for Personal Computer.
Since when has PC not stood for personal computer?
You're talking rubbish.
ShadowRL7666@reddit
Did you not read a single message I have sent.
ScholarNo5983@reddit
You said this:
Clearly that is a totally idiotic statement to make.
PC = personal computer
ShadowRL7666@reddit
Stick to software bud.
ScholarNo5983@reddit
My suggest to you; stay clear of English language discussions as it's clear you're struggling with some rather basic concepts like words and their meanings.
ShadowRL7666@reddit
English is a language which changes all the time. You don’t even know what you’re arguing right now.
ScholarNo5983@reddit
All languages change with time you idiot. It's a trait of human communication. That is why humans invented the dictionary; it lets everyone know what the current set of words actually mean.
Have you every tried using a dictionary?
Clearly not. I doubt you can even spell it.
But give it a go. You might learn something.
ShadowRL7666@reddit
You seem very angry. I’m sure you only know one language. Even then you don’t seem to understand English very well. In English we have something called SLANG also dialects in English are a thing. For example coke In the south means soda not the specific coke brand. Notice how that works?
ShadowRL7666@reddit
In the 70s and early 80s computers started to appear which were cheap enough that enthusiasts and the public could afford to buy and tinker with them. Individual people could afford these machines. Many new 8bit machines appeared and everyone got excited and this period is what we would refer to as the "Personal Computer Revolution".
IBM, a big company busy with expensive mainframe and business machines up to now, entered the market with their IBM PC (i.e. an IBM computer aimed for personal use). Even compared to the machines at the time is was quite uninspired hardware-wise, but it did have some interesting details with respect to software. The OS (MSDOS) was licensed from Microsoft and it wasn't exclusively licensed. The OS for most other machines was produced and owned by the company who made the machine. Sharing info about how the hardware worked was pretty common at the time unlike now. But the system software was often an issue.
The IBM PC did quite well in business settings and other companies wanted a piece of the action. Microsoft was more than happy to sell MSDOS licenses to other companies and soon enough computers appeared which claimed to be "IBM PC compatible". (Actually, there was one software problem, the BIOS was by IBM. I think it was Compaq who did the first clean room implementation of compatible BIOS software.)
This whole market of "PC clones" took off and killed off most of the other competing types of personal computers. Through the years the terms "IBM PC compatible" and "PC clone" got shortened to just "PC compatible" and just PC.
A note to students of history. If it wasn't for the non-exclusive license of MSDOS to IBM, clones machines would not have been possible, the PC might not have become the dominant microcomputer architecture and the younger people here on reddit might never have heard of a company called Microsoft.
Note also that Apple computer doesn't license their OS out to other manufacturers, which is why there are no (legal) Mac clones. (Except for a very brief period of time in the 90s.)
tenniseman12@reddit
Interesting hill to die on
ShadowRL7666@reddit
Weird argument to make.
NeoChrisOmega@reddit
I think the above commenter is slightly inaccurate. PC has become another way of saying a Desktop Computer. I don't hear people say Desktop anymore (especially since a Desktop is more commonly understood as the "home page" of the PC). I hear it referred to as a Tower more commonly now, but even more commonly than that PC tends to refer to a computer that isn't a laptop/phone/tablet.
Jahonay@reddit
I would use Mac or Linux any day personally
BigPersonality1574@reddit
With pc, do you mean Windows?
IAmFinah@reddit
No. If anything, a Mac is "better" than a Windows PC because you don't have to do anything fancy to get a UNIX shell
Icy_Equipment_2617@reddit (OP)
Thanks
emoriginal@reddit
Also, just run Windows as a virtual machine on OS X (several apps do this) and then you can play with both. Unix is the best terminal for learning coding, then use an IDE like VS Code or others.
Pale_Height_1251@reddit
It matters not one jot.
Kompost88@reddit
It doesn't matter. Windows environment is easy to virtualize if you need it.
polypeptide147@reddit
I’d rather use a Mac than a PC
Crazy-Finding-2436@reddit
You can use Visual studio code on a mac. Visual studio still works but the mac version stopped receiving updates in 2024. I would use Windows virtual machine or vs code.
The_Other_David@reddit
I'd say a Mac is slightly better, because it's closer to Linux. But a lot of stuff works the same nowadays, especially with containers making environment irrelevant.
DTux5249@reddit
I mean, honestly, it doesn't matter too badly. It's a bit more work to set up some things on a PC, but if you haven't done anything too weird, and you can follow a tutorial for most of it.