PC vs Mac

Begin shameless rant…

When I read the “system requirements” for hardware these days, and see “PC or Mac”, I cringe. Surely someone who’s developing the hardware should understand the horrible inaccuracy of this.

The term “PC”, or Personal Computer, is used to refer to any hardware that is (at this point, a derivative of) an IBM PC architecture clone. This generally means Intel x86 (compatible) systems.

In 2005, Apple discontinued their PowerPC systems and made the move to Intel-based computers. Since 2005, all Apple (Mac, iMac, MacBook, etc.) computers have been PCs.

Similarly, PC refers just to the hardware, not the operating system. An Intel-based computer running Linux is a PC.

If you mean “Requires Microsoft Windows or Mac”, say that. I don’t know whether it’s more disturbing to see this on the box of a piece of (I assume, engineered) hardware or in a tutorial or how-to supposedly written by someone who knows something about technology.