[michaelt]

> Why is this acceptable for phones but would not for the case above?

PCs happened by accident.

Before the PC, people had TVs - devices not for creating, but for passively consuming content made by big corporations and the state. And we had games consoles - devices not for creating, but for playing games made by a medium-sized company, with strict approval by a huge company (who want a cut). Strictly censored to be age-appropriate, naturally. Pirate radio? Straight to jail.

Before that people had newspapers - media for passively consuming, intended for mass readership, written at the behest of rich newspaper barons with certain political opinions they're keen to push.

And after the PC, we have smartphones - devices not for creating, but for consuming content feeds, curated by big corporations, with rich owners with certain political opinions they're keen to push. A huge company eager to take a cut. A tiny screen, and a keyboard that puts curly braces three keypresses deep. Can't even debug a web page without connecting to a PC. And soon to be strictly censored to be age-appropriate.

The PC is really the outlier here.

[handoflixue]

Alongside TV we had cameras, and families across the country filming birthdays and other special occasions.

Alongside newspapers we had 'zine culture and mail-order pamphlets.

There has always been the option to contribute - the Apple iPhone is quite possibly the first exception.

[testing22321]

You could film and put it on your tv, but you couldn’t create and distribute to the medium at large

[kombookcha]

Not with the same reach, but some people kinda could! Specifics depended on where you were in the world, but it existed and to some extent still does. In spite of a very rough decade and a half since 2010 culling many of them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public-access_television https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_television_in_Canada https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swindon_Viewpoint https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_television_in_Austra...

[Jtarii]

Weirdo eccentrics sure found a way to distribute their shot on home video b-movies.

[account42]

And you can still use the camera app to post your pictures to social media. It's hardly the same level of creative participation that the PC invites.

[ozgung]

I think this was because of the “IBM PC Compatible” market. IBM was using off-the-shelf components for its PC system and other manufacturers reverse engineered and cloned the system and started selling IBM clones. Interestingly Microsoft who controlled the OS became the monopoly and gatekeeper of that market, not IBM (hardware). MS was making a ton of money by selling OS licenses and online software stores was not a thing since the Internet was nonexistent/limited. “Developers, developers, developers” were the king in that business model so they didn’t need to give a cut to MS or IBM to build on a PC system.

Saying that I think the situation in the smartphones today is less about the business model and more about control and surveillance.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_PC_compatible

[estimator7292]

That's really not true at all. Are you aware of the entire home computer industry of the 70s and 80s? Before PCs, you had a beige box you plugged into your TV and typed in games line by line out of a magazine. They DIY scene was enormous as a percentage of total users.

They also blur the line between "computer" and "console", since the NES is practically the same architecture as many contemporary "computers". Homebrew games existed, and weren't that far out of reach. Homebrew has existed on pretty much every console ever.

PCs weren't an accident in any way. They are a direct descendant of "home computers". That's why they were called "personal computers" in the first place.