[ Retro Scan of the Week ] The Osborne 1
June 25th, 2012 by Benj Edwards
Two out of three doctors recommend Osborne 1 for muscle fatigue.
We’ve come a long way from what many consider to be the first commercial portable PC, the Osborne 1 (seen here), and the recently announced Microsoft Surface tablet.
Here’s a brain twister for you. If you packed a case the size of the Osborne 1 (think small suitcase) with Surface-sized portable tech, how powerful would the machine be?
Discussion Topic of the Week: What was your first portable computer? When did you get it?
June 25th, 2012 at 2:51 pm
Lee Felsenstein who designed the Osborne 1 will be in NJ on July 1 2012 speaking to the Mid Atlantic Retro Computing Hobbyists about Computer History.
Here is my page which talks about the event
http://8bitaficionado.com/2012/06/10/lee-felenstein-is-coming-to-infoage-in-nj-on-july-1st-2012/
June 26th, 2012 at 9:27 pm
My first portable was a Zenith laptop, Model ZWL-200-2. It was a company-issued 286 with a 20mb hard drive.
June 28th, 2012 at 2:49 am
My first portable was a Dell Latitude 600 – not too old, really. It still gets pressed into service when the newer things crash. I got it because my son won it in a Google Code Jam, and I pointed out that since he already had a laptop, he could give it to me for Christmas and not worry about gift shopping.
OTOH, I have a nice Commodore SX-64 sitting in the living room that I really ought to try out.
June 28th, 2012 at 9:08 am
my first portable was a Compaq Contura Aero 4/25. i think it was a 486sx with 4megabytes of ram and maybe a 40mb of harddisk. i installed Stacker in this gadget. it is very light, and very easy to carry this in my bag. i use it for my undergraduate years circa 1995 or 96.
the only trouble, that after few months of use, the screen hinge broke!!! i have to rest the screen on a wall to use it…
btw, you could build a trap that kills a person by dropping the Osborne 1 on his/her head… so this is way more powerful than today’s tablet.
June 28th, 2012 at 9:11 am
correction: it was a Contura Aero 4/33c. the one with color vga. 4/25 is monochrome
June 28th, 2012 at 9:35 am
I have a Contura Aero 4/33c and a 4/25 — they are really cool machines. In fact, they’re probably my favorite vintage laptops in my collection. A few years ago, I used the 4/25 to play through some text adventure games while winding down for bed (the screen is backlit, so I could play them in the dark), and it was lots of fun.
June 28th, 2012 at 2:57 pm
Ahh, the awesomeness. My dad used to have one of these. Green and black monitor. I actually wrote my first little basic program on it, and today I got my degree in software engineering.
Great read. Brings back memories.
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