PCs are no longer Personal Computers
I watched the Omacon stream the other day and one of the ideas that resonated with me, and that I didn’t fully grasped was the latest evolution of the PC.
PC stands for Personal Computer of course, but that Personal has travelled quite a lot over the last few decades to almost becoming unrecognisable: there is very little of the person that owns the computer in a Personal Computer these days.
Personal Computers have become an enterprise thin client without much fanfare, it is hard to make Windows 11 personal, it is also hard to make MacOS 26 personal.
What does it mean to be a Personal Computer?
- Can you decide which apps to run?
- Can you decide how the UI looks and works?
- Can you make it less safe and more fun?
- Can it be a unique experience crafted for the audience of 1, you?
Modern OS and hardware too have done away with most of this in the name of safe but boring predictability.
Middle age crisis
PCs are middle aged concepts, and like middle aged people have put away their exuberant teens and early 20s extravaganzas and have settled in suburbia running the 9-5 slog. Predictable, repeatable, forgettable, safe, boring, sameness.
I long for more, I will not go soflty into the good night, I long for something mine, that works for me the way I want it.
I want my PC to be a Personal Computer again.