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[ReasonBeing]

I can install and execute arbitrary software. That's literally it for me.

 

[dgrdsv]

I can install and execute arbitrary software. That's literally it for me.

So my Android smartphone is a PC, great.

 

[Soodanim]

So my Android smartphone is a PC, great.

It kind of is. It's an evolutionary offshoot that superficially doesn't resemble what most consider a PC (and by that they usually mean desktop or laptop), but underneath it is essentially all the things that make a PC. You can still plug in a keyboard and IIRC a mouse if you really wanted, and its base is Linux.

 

[CentralScrutinizer]

Can it get a virus watching porn?

PC.

 

[SnapShot]

Personal computer? wouldn't call consoles or smartphones PCs for instance, because they are used almost exclusively for gaming and calling people, anything else they can do is often just extra and not what they were meant for out of the box

 

[Dr.Morris79]

 

[ReasonBeing]

So my Android smartphone is a PC, great.

Maybe one could argue Android tablets and smartphonesis are a subcategory.

I have used my S24 in dex mode a few times to play some emulated games on the TV at my cousin's house. It has a full desktop UI. It walked like a duck in quacked like a duck.

 

[Durin]

It kind of is. It's an evolutionary offshoot that superficially doesn't resemble what most consider a PC (and by that they usually mean desktop or laptop), but underneath it is essentially all the things that make a PC. You can still plug in a keyboard and IIRC a mouse if you really wanted, and its base is Linux.

Pretty much, the only major difference is the philosophy of mobile OSs being these far more locked down things pushing a centralized app store, and Google slowly trying to kill off side-loading APKs to get around it.

Some of the retro handhelds even being able to boot into Linux distros to run emulators purely off a micro-sd card instead of using Android, points to the device being capable of being a more open computer.

 

[twilo99]