today's disgusted-at-kids-today old lady moment:

the fools on reddit are calling the Steam Cube "Basically PC 2"

lemme get out my IBM AT, my PS/2, a 386, a 64bit system, and a UEFI system, set them all in up a row, and give a presentation.

the presentation is just "fuck you" and walking out

feel free to suggest any other PC history milestones I may have forgotten, any one of which would be a more fitting use for the name "PC 2"

EDIT: removed reference to it being ARM. That's just the VR headset, apparently

The move to PCI might count. That was a big change in a lot of ways (16-bit ISA is already covered in IBM AT)

You could make an argument for the Compaq Portable of 1983 being the real PC 2, since clearly IBM has very little to do with it

Oh here's an obvious one: The PCjr is in many ways a PC 2

corrected my error about the cube being ARM from before.

so wait if it's not ARM, why is it not just a PC? it's... an odd shape? it runs linux by default?

By this argument, System76 laptops could be PC 2

Another one that I didn't think really counted, but hey, if the Steam Cube is a PC 2, why not the IBM XT?

yeah it's identical to an IBM PC except for having a hard drive, but that's a pretty big jump! IBM just could have called it a PC 2, and then the AT could be PC 3, with the PS/2 (YOU KNOW, IBM'S PC, NUMBER 2?) as PC 4

donate to my channel so I can buy one and crush it under a 40lb (18kg) PS/2 model 80

maybe the logic is that anything designed after the original IBM PC and taking some influence from its design is a valid candidate for a PC 2

and if that's the case I will hold up an original Apple Macintosh and shout BEHOLD, A PC!

hell given the gaming focus, you could argue a PC with a 3DFX card is a "PC 2", because of how much 3D accelerators/GPUs changed PC gaming

but I see, it's small and can be plugged into a TV and used from a wireless controller, making it more of a console than a traditional desktop/tower PC, right... Any system that does that is clearly the PC 2

BEHOLD, YOUR NEW GOD, THE PC2!

though I guess it is revolutionary to make a console out of an x86 chip, keeping a degree of PC compatibility to make it easy to port standard PC games to it. That's definitely PC2!

BEHOLD, THE PC 2!

(of course I didn't go for the xbox, it's both too obvious and who cares? But a 1992 PC-based console with Windows 3.x in ROM that cratered fantastically? I could write for days. (I have written for days))

the 1991 Multimedia PC (MPC) standard by the Multimedia PC Marketing Council: That's PC 2.

confusingly, the NEC PC-9800 series, the Fujitsu FM Towns, and ASCII MSX are all called PC 2 in Japan

The Tandy/Microsoft/Kyocera TRS-80 Model 100 is the PC 2

Microsoft has a history of the PC published on their site. Don't read it, it's horrible and was probably written by a matrix multiplication.

But it DOES suggest two other big events in the history of the PC:
The rise of all-in-ones, and the move to tablets with Windows 8.

terrible options, but worth considering

The addition of the mouse? USB? Windows? CD-ROM drives?

any one of those could be considered a big enough change to be called the PC 2

Moving to the 3.5" floppy drive in the IBM AT had compatibility implications for YEARS. pretty big change, that. might even call it the PC 2.

"oh yeah, the big flexible ones? those are PC 1 disks. The PC2 moved to those little stiff ones."

You know, like how your NES cartridge won't fit into a Super Nintendo

https://infosec.exchange/@grumpasaurus/115539965150370345

or the Adlib card. Either one: PC 2

if I plug my IBM 5150 into my TV and hook up a wireless gameport joystick and play Digger, does that count as a PC 2.0?

(yes, I can plug an IBM 5150 PC with a CGA card into my TV with only HDMI. Don't ask how, I have many adapters)

actually I realize I can do this in two ways, go analog or digital.

IBM CGA cards have composite out, and I can just upscale that to HDMI pretty easily.

if I'm fast, I could plug it into my blondertongue and wirelessly broadcast the signal from my office upstairs to my bedroom below, since the FCC is still all shutdown'd and not hunting pirate NTSC TV broadcasts

I think I've got.. 8 minutes

reddit has the "PC 2" take, mastodon isn't talking about it much, blusky either thinks its amazing or terrible, and I go to tumblr and they've already drawn Sexy Steam Cube Girl.

it's always interesting to see a news story happen and all your socials react in their own ways.
I imagine on IRC someone has posted a link, and gotten just one reply about "I wonder how much it'll cost though", and the channel returned to idleness