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kbnrylaec: Best solution:
Multiseat configuration (wikipedia)
One PC for 2~6 (and could be more) users.
Like I said, lots of mumbo-jumbo with "xorg.conf" on Linux. With Linux'es inherited server/mainframe underlying design (all those "Alt-Fx" virtual terminals) it is easy to "play mainframe" on a PC.

And third-party solutions on Windows.

Granted, given time, motivation, knowledge and resources anything can be done. Even installing Linux on Sony's "PlayStation 4" console. Yet, I'd still not call it PC afterwards.

But PC is a single-user experience. They was built to be like this: one user -> one machine.
Post edited January 07, 2017 by Alm888
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DeMignon: *Looks under the table..

Yep, it's black. How did you know? o_O?
Best comment ever :D
Interesting debate about "what is the core aspect of PC?"

while I agree with several definitions here I would like to give another one, which caught one aspect which differentiated from homecomputers of the old age: being a platform for free extension for software and hardware. The open softwareware interfaces (bios functions, stable api/abi) for ISV software on one hand also free hardware sockets and buses for a healthy third party hardware market. Homecomputers as also the "apple pc" failed this test due to being locked hw platforms.

Windows (until 10) & macos & linux are open software platforms... ios is not.

(While i'm a fan of linux as being FOSS, its unix design predates the pc and is from my petspective still hampered by its ubnderlying mainframe to workstation multiuser approach + the missing proper decoupling between apps and os (manifesting in the strange distro concept) which I think is one of the core reasons for the limited adoption in the PC / desktop domain)
Post edited January 07, 2017 by shaddim
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Alm888: ... after OS/2 fiasco ...
It wasn't a fiasco, it was a total success. In know-how transfer from IBM to MS. :)
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Alm888: My work machine does not belong to me. It is a property of my employer. Yet, it is a PC with Linux (and only Linux) on board. And on my previous workplace we had one PC (normal Windows machine) for like 5 workers (and no own laptops/notebooks allowed) so we had to share our times. But those were also "personal", because only one person could work at a time! :-)
No, you confuse 1-person or multiseat with personal.
If your employer denies you hardware access, your machine is likewise managed.

Remote IPMI and chassis lock watchdog suffice.

Easy a car analogy - even if your car is for 1 driver and 3 passengers, even if you drive alone but the car does not belong to you as private property, its not personal. Driven by 1 person does not mean its personal. Anytime other party exercise some kind of control over you, you loose some freedoms and its less personal.

There is same thing in PC and bikers, reason why cruiser bikers dislike sport bikes is lacking customization and amount of proprietary parts. These too have little freedom.

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Alm888: Don't forget about the second part of the term! We are talking about "computers" i.e. devices that enable humans to compute faster. Be it mathematical calculations, computer-aided design (CAD) or computational fluid dynamics (CFD), only computers are suited for the task. Computers are made to create, everything else with a chip -- to consume. Thus video game consoles and smartphones are not PCs and neither are coffee machines. Even industrial assembly robots and numerical controlled lathes are having "controllers", not computers.
I did some creativity on my calculator, like writing 0.1134 and reading it upside down which is one of upside down games. There are more.
GBA is also used to produce chiptunes.

Means devices allow prosumer behavior, but often the controlling instance ("manager" of platform) does not see them as such and can forbid this behavior with DRM (if present; also notice "management" word in abbreviation, its a managed entity).

When the action of modifying device requires taking freedoms from manager to device owner - it is called "hacking" the device.
If the device is personal, there is no "hacking" but just "modification", "modding". For example, to add new textures to older games, one has to change the binary-only old code - this is "hacking".
But on some newer games, these modifications are allowed by manager themselves - thus its just "modding".

Hence by definition, there is no "hacking" on truly "personal computer", just "modification", creative work.

A coffee machine can be personal to varying degrees. Pad coffee machines are easy to hack the proprietary capsules with adapter and the electronics are easy. But firmware in the chip is closed (for hacks such as making bigger cup volume or boiling to higher temperature, really just pump, tsensor and boiler controls). The regular filter machines often have primitive electronics and no firmware - these are personal :) I wonder if there is something like personal pad coffee machine out there with open firmware...