What is a desktop computer?

What is a desktop computer?

A desktop computer is a Personal Computer (PC) . Early desktop computers are designed to lay flat on the desk, while modern towers stand upright. Most modern desktop computers have separate screens and keyboards.

What is a desktop computer?

A desktop computer is a personal computer (PC) in a form intended for regular use at a single location.

Early computers took the space of a room. Minicomputers generally fit into one or a few refrigerator sized racks. It was not until the 1970's when computers such as the HP 9800 series desktop computers were fully programmable computers that fit entirely on top of a desk. The first large calculators were introduced in 1971, leading to a model programmable in basic in 1972. They used a smaller version of a minicomputer design based on ROM memory and had small one-line LED alphanumeric displays. They could draw computer graphics with a plotter. The Wang 2200 of 1973 had a full-size Cathode ray Tube (CRT) and cassette tape storage. The IBM 5100 in 1975 had a small CRT display and could be programmed in BASIC and APL.

These were generally expensive specialized computers sold for business or scientific uses. By the late 1970's and 1980's personal computers, such as the Apple ii series and the IBM Personal computer used standard processors to reduce cost to put a complete computer on top of a desk with a separate monitor. These would find uses in the home as well as in business and industry, and later incorporate graphic user interfaces and powerful networked operating systems such as Mac (Macintosh) and Windows.

An operating system is the program that after being initially loaded into the computer by a boot program, manages all the other programs in a computer. Most of today's desktop computers have one of the three major operating systems available. In order of usage share, they are Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. Now over 6 million people have a Microsoft program on their computer all over the world.