If you jailbreak the Switch, you can do all of those things. But by your definition, because I can’t arbitrarily install Windows software on an Apple computer, it is not a PC.
Just because it’s not easy doesn’t mean the Switch isn’t a personal computer. It is a device you can personally own that takes bits and bytes and performs computations with them that results in things like saving a game (data storage), internet communication (network computing), and video rendering (video stream computation).
SquirtleHermit@lemmy.world 1 year ago
The ability install “arbitrary software without restriction” is what defines a PC? Now that is complete and utter horseshit. A Chromebook isn’t a PC? A laptop with account restrictions to prevent the end user from installing software isn’t a PC? A desktop running an immutable linux distro isn’t a PC? Quit your bullshit.
conciselyverbose@kbin.social 1 year ago
A chromebook runs arbitrary software without any sort of hacks. Before this was the case, Chromebooks were very obviously not PCs. So do immutable OSes.
Account restrictions are the owner of the hardware "running arbitrary software" to control what someone else can do and completely irrelevant.
There is no scenario where you can call a Switch a PC, any more than you can call a phone a PC, an ATM a PC, or a pregnancy test with a chip in it a PC. It's not a misunderstanding; it's a lie.
SquirtleHermit@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Honestly, I think you are just using a very specific (and pretty inaccurate) definition of a personal computer. Saying a device that the manufacturer artificially locking out users from installing non approved software is somehow related to the definition of a PC is simply a lie.
You can install Linux on smart phones, so by your definition, a phone is a PC. You can install Linux on first gen switches without modifying the hardware, so by your definition, first generation switches are PC’s. You can even install Linux on modern switches just by soldering on a special chip, so “modified switches” are PCs.
ATM’s often run Windows as the base OS ffs, of course you could call them a PC. As you said, "the owner of the hardware “running arbitrary software” to control what someone else can do is completely irrelavent.
If account restrictions are the owner of the hardware preventing the end user from “running arbitrary software”, then all that means is Nintendo owns your switch. Not that the switch is incapable of running arbitrary software.
You’re strange definition of PC simply does not hold up to scrutiny. I get that you are trying to say that “because a Switch is a device manufactured for the express purpose of running games only accessible through Nintendo’s official channels, it is a far different user experience than what we think of as a traditional desktop”. But to say it isn’t a personal computer, when it is a personal device that runs using a processor, ram, storage, a graphical processor, all connected by a central print circuit board is simply absurd.