Totally new to external hard drives and have a few questions

Since beginning my search for an external hard drive this morning I have learned that I know very little about this subject. I really have very little knowledge of all the computer lingo used when looking at these devices. I have a few questions regarding this, if someone could help me.
1. Are all external hard drives compatible with my mac?
2. Do I need time machine if I have an external hard drive?
3. I have two PCs in addition to my mac. Can I use the same external hard drive for all three or would I need a separate one?
Thanks for helping!

Use a Firewire not a USB drive.
I have had many reliability issues, and compatibility issues with USB over the years (starting with the original iMac), right up to the PowerMac G5 and Mac Pro - devices not working properly with hubs, needing to be plugged directly into ports on the computer (even though there aren't enough), etc, etc.
For me Firewire devices cause fewer of these sorts of problems.
Firewire is "isochronous", basically meaning that you can pump "clocked" data though it in real time. USB works more like TCPIP, with the data chopped up into packets and later reassembled. (Thus, at a minimum, you have latency, that is, the wait for the data to be "put back together".) Second, the Firewire protocol allows more direct address to memory (including mass storage) with minimal intervention of the CPU.
No collisions, no glitches. Firewire is rock-solid.

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