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Portable Pioneer Adam Osborne dead at 64

Posted by chrisd on from the heavy-news dept.

douglips writes "Yahoo News has the story. He's best remembered for the blunder of announcing that his next version of the Osborne portable computer was so much better, that nobody bought the current version and the company died quickly. I'm sure everyone in the Slashdot community will miss him - even if you didn't enjoy his work, there's no denying his contributions to popular culture. Truly an American icon."

2 of 322 comments (clear)

  1. Back in the day... by john82 · · Score: 5, Informative
    The Osborne1 was the hot piece of technology. And to give you an idea how desperate the situation was, consider this.
    • It had a 5 inch screen that was monochrome (amber I seem to recall).
    • It weighed a freakin' ton. Okay maybe 30lbs. But the brochures highlighted that like it was impressive (Only 30 lbs!).
    • There were two 5.25" floppies (360k?)
    • 64 kB of RAM!
    • And last, but not least, a 4MHz Z80 CPU!

    Gadzooks how could one resist? But for a lot of folks who needed a computer not bolted to the floor (like reporters), the Osborne1 fit the bill.
  2. The computer that did Osborne in by mpthompson · · Score: 5, Informative

    For those interested, the Vixen is the system that was pre-announced and caused the demise of Osborne Computer due to the ensuing cash flow crunch.

    Having an Osborne 1 at the time and active in FOG I remember lusting over the Vixen. How times have changed...