Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

The 30th Anniversary of Osborne Computer

Posted by timothy on from the not-the-reality-tv-star-no dept.

harrymcc writes "This Sunday is the thirtieth anniversary of the announcement of the Osborne 1 — the first mass-produced mobile computer. For years, Osborne has been most famous for its failure, traditionally blamed on the company having preannounced new products before they were available. But that's not the whole story — and Adam Osborne, its founder, was a fascinating figure who deserves to be remembered."

2 of 81 comments (clear)

  1. I own one by NiceGeek · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Well, to be precise, I own the 2nd model - the "Osborne Executive" with the slightly larger, amber monitor.
    The old girl still fires up, I found the system software years before I came across the computer itself. Totally impractical and useless but I still enjoy firing up Zork on it to impress my fellow geeks.

  2. Re:What's even scarier is that I almost bought one by julesh · · Score: 4, Informative

    Back in 1981, I was programming for a company with a 64K CPM computer with a Hazeltine monitor. Life was great.

    64K in 1981? Holy crap, that was the hotness!

    Not especially. The basic model IBM PC, launched that year, had 64k expandable to 256. The Apple IIe had launched 2 years earlier with 48k. 64k was probably about average at the time for a proper micro (i.e. not a "home" computer).