Fantastic article! You nailed the core irony perfectly: the term "PC Compatible" was almost a misnomer from day one, because even in the heyday of cloning, a "compatible" machine could choke on software that poked the hardware directly or relied on the quirks of IBM's specific BIOS. True compatibility was always a spectrum, not a binary state.

It’s a great example of a technological anachronism—a term that outlives its original meaning. We have plenty of those, for example, we still "dial" a phone number on a keypad, "hang up" a call without a physical receiver to hang, and save a file to a "desktop" that’s often just a digital metaphor.

So really, "PC Compatible" fits right in: a useful, socially-agreed-upon label that’s more about practical expectation than technical purity. Thanks for the insightful read—it definitely brought a smile to my face. Cheers