A personal computer (PC) is a computer whose price, size, and capabilities make it useful for individuals. Personal computers can be categorized by size and portability: Desktop computers, Laptop or notebooks, Personal digital assistants (PDAs), Portable computers, Tablet computers, Wearable computers, Cell Phones, In their early years personal computer was interchangeable with Microcomputers and home computers. Often, the term "personal computer" is used exclusively for computers running a Microsoft Windows operating system, but this is erroneous. For example, a Macintosh running Mac OS and an IBM PC compatible running Linux are both personal computers.
This confusion stems from the fact that the term "PC" is often used as a shorthand form for "IBM PC compatible" and historically Mac OS has run on non-IBM compatible hardware like the PowerPC architecture. Newer personal computing devices have had their OS wars with WindowsCE struggling with PalmOS in the PDA markets and now the cell phone devices have gotten powerful enough to start a whole new struggle to define the personal computer, its operating system and how we use it in our daily lives.
Personal computers are normally operated by one user at a time to perform such general purpose tasks as word processing, Internet browsing, Internet faxing, e-mail and other digital messaging, multimedia playback, computer game play, computer programming, etc. The user of a modern personal computer may have significant knowledge of the operating environment and application programs, but is not necessarily interested in programming nor even able to write programs for the computer.
Therefore, most software written primarily for personal computers tends to be designed with simplicity of use, or "user-friendliness" in mind. However, the software industry continuously provide a wide range of new products for use in personal computers, targeted at both the expert and the non-expert user.
A laptop computer or simply laptop, also called a notebook computer or notebook, is a small personal computer designed for mobility. Usually all of the interface hardware needed to operate the laptop, such as parallel and serial ports, graphics card, sound channel, etc., are built in to a single unit. Most laptops contain batteries to facilitate operation without a readily available electrical outlet. In the interest of saving power, weight and space, they usually share RAM with the video channel, slowing their performance compared to an equivalent desktop machine.
