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Yeah, well my portable weighs 25 lbs and doesn't even have a battery, you insensitive clod!

In fact, it was Compaq Ahh ... here's the story

• The Compaq Portable was the first 100% compatible IBM computer clone. Why make an IBM clone? Because the IBM PC was extremely popular, and taken very seriously by businesses looking for a computer system.

  Problem: Compaq couldn't just copy IBM's BIOS to make their new machine guaranteed IBM compatible, this would be illegal, and easily proven by IBM.

  Solution: Reverse-engineer IBM's BIOS. Compaq used two sets of programmers, one group who had access to IBM's source code and another who knew nothing about it. The first group closely looked at the original code, and made notes of exactly what it did. The second group took these notes, and wrote their own BIOS that performed exactly the same. After one year and a million dollars, they were successfull. They had a legal BIOS identical in operation to that of the IBM computer.

Well, in some countries there is a minimum age to purchase alcohol. In the US, its 21. According to: http://oldcomputers.net/c64.html the commodore was released Jan, 1982. Making it 21 years old, or, old enough to drink.

I am a real person who installed SuSE for the first time yesterday. This is my first Linux install. I have used more than one OS (if CP/M on my Imsai 8080 counts). But since 88, I've been using DOS and then windows in 90.

I downloaded the trial iso that allowed me to run SuSE from my CD drive to see if it works with my hardware. The AMD 2500 machine that I built this year froze in the boot sequence. No biggie, I just glanced at the compatibility info. I didn't check to see if my components were compatible. It's probably just a case of user error (RTFM). I popped the CD in an old 700 mhz machine, and I'm off and running. I had absolutely no issues with the install. I am extremely pleased with the interface, and I'm excited to start learning how to control an OS from the command line again.

When I worked for a large sw company in Redmond, I was just down the hall from the prez and his PR cronies. They were nice enough people, but extremely cocky. I remember overhearing one say something to the effect of ?I hope Linux does well, it makes it look like there are OS choices out there?. I thought with that attitude, employees like that would give away the keys to the kingdom. Complacency can destroy an empire more quickly than any lawsuit. As real people are forced to call an 800 number to 'activate' the software they payed good money for, they are going to get disgusted and start looking elsewhere.

Have I said anything that hasn't already been said on /.? Probably not, but I'm one more convert, and one more nail in the coffin of the M$ empire. Isn't that something that the /. community traditionally embraces? Or has your cockiness led to complacency?

Yea, well my Atari 5200 walks all over anything you've got!

Not my MITS Altair 8800.

Clearly a far superior machine.

Now that I didn't know, ah computing was so much more open back in the day...

After some googling, I was able to find a site that expands on your statement. Compaq couldn't take the BIOS listings and copy them for obvious legal reasons, but the way they got around this was rather novel. Take a look!

How about if the old Laptop TFT screen gets built into the side of the PC case? Like those glass windows everyone bores out of the case.

Of course, then, ultimately, you'll end up with something like this...

Model III
- or -
Sony's new all-in-one
- or -
Datapoint 2200
- and an Osborne computer mentioned elsewhere in the thread -
Osborne executive 3

I will have to say, though, one of the prettiest cases I've ever seen was this one... it'd make a pretty cool Linux box today (with some hardware modification)!

Sharp MZ40K System 2

I guess all-in-ones are somewhat en-vogue again. It just figures an all-in-one-(esque) case mod for a regular tower case is in order.

You mean this?

I dunno, but that thing looks real ass backwards to me. Reminds me of an old Atari 800.

The Compaq Portable Computer (their first laptop / luggable) had the 'computer behind the screen' and the keyboard folded up to cover it. Came out in 1982, so not quite unique. Alright, I know that's splitting hairs, but anyway, it was a beast this machine, at least in size, have used one and was involved in kind of owning one that became melted plastic in a forest fire unfortunately. Here's a page about it.

The Osborne was the first followed by the Kaypro II.

The Osborne was the first followed by the Kaypro II.

Wow, you're right!

If it wasn't for the apple logo, I wouldn't be able to tell them apart: mac vs. compaq

And the mac doesn't even have a monitor or floppy! IT SUXXORZ!

Hahaha that's awesome. It looks like they're on a turbolift or something. "Hey baby, want to touch my mobile blazing 1 million Hz minicomputer?" ... "Uh, no, I get off here."

>PC makers still have a lot to learn from Apple IMO

You mean Apple learned from PC makers, right? Apples loves to bring back really OLD ideas and pretend they're new and cool...

So, what you're saying is that the Coleco Adam was way ahead of its time.

I wrote a decompiler that produced compilable Forth code from competitor's ROMs (and we had loads of laughs looking at their inept examples of programming, such as "1 = if 1 else 0 endif" which basically did nothing at all), and I also managed to squeeze in a 4K bytes ROM an insurance rate table with 10,000 integer entries (the second derivative did fit in three bits or something silly like that).