Happy 40th birthday Osborne I

[Andreas Kohlbach]

Happy birthday first "portable" computer for the masses.

[Mike Spencer]

Post by Andreas Kohlbach
Happy birthday first "portable" computer for the masses.

()()()()()()

My first computer! Made a hand-raised copper currry pan for a guy who
was upgrading his gf to a Mac, an even swap for an Osborne, all software
including dBase II and a printer in 1987. Learned Z80 assembler,
BASIC & C on it and used it as a terminal to log into Unix and VMS
accounts over dialup or (Ob. afc!) DataPac. Remember DataPac? Ended
up with seven of them, including two I loaned out to impoverished
grad students and supported.

[Andreas Kohlbach]

Post by Mike Spencer

Post by Andreas Kohlbach
Happy birthday first "portable" computer for the masses.

()()()()()()
My first computer! Made a hand-raised copper currry pan for a guy who
was upgrading his gf to a Mac, an even swap for an Osborne, all software
including dBase II and a printer in 1987. Learned Z80 assembler,
BASIC & C on it and used it as a terminal to log into Unix and VMS
accounts over dialup or (Ob. afc!) DataPac. Remember DataPac? Ended
up with seven of them, including two I loaned out to impoverished
grad students and supported.

Never had an Osborne myself. Only read about it little more than a decade
ago and ran it (and the Executive and Vixen) in an emulator.

Yesterday the note of the anniversary showed up on Wikipedia at "On this
day", so thought I mention it here.

[Andreas Eder]

Post by Mike Spencer

Post by Andreas Kohlbach
Happy birthday first "portable" computer for the masses.

()()()()()()
My first computer!

It was also my first computer.

'Andreas

[Andreas Kohlbach]

Post by Andreas Eder

Post by Mike Spencer

Post by Andreas Kohlbach
Happy birthday first "portable" computer for the masses.

()()()()()()
My first computer!

It was also my first computer.

Never seen it in Germany. But that might have been before "my
time". Wasn't until 1982 that I roamed electronic stores to see the new
computers and play with them. Suppose the Osborne wasn't even sold there
before.

Inside one of these stores I learned the basics of BASIC. :-) Wasn't
until late 1984 when I bought my first computer, a Commodore 64.

Post by Andreas Eder
'Andreas

Ditto.

[Andreas Eder]

Post by Andreas Kohlbach

Post by Andreas Eder

Post by Mike Spencer

Post by Andreas Kohlbach
Happy birthday first "portable" computer for the masses.

()()()()()()
My first computer!

It was also my first computer.

Never seen it in Germany. But that might have been before "my
time". Wasn't until 1982 that I roamed electronic stores to see the new
computers and play with them. Suppose the Osborne wasn't even sold there
before.

I think it was in 1982 that I bought my Osborne. It was in the local
Osborne office in Munich, Germany.

'Andreas

[Andreas Kohlbach]

Post by Andreas Eder

Post by Andreas Kohlbach
Never seen it in Germany. But that might have been before "my
time". Wasn't until 1982 that I roamed electronic stores to see the new
computers and play with them. Suppose the Osborne wasn't even sold there
before.

I think it was in 1982 that I bought my Osborne. It was in the local
Osborne office in Munich, Germany.

There was an Osborne Office?

Okay, Munich has roughly 10 times the number of citizens of the town I
grew up in. I cannot recall that we had any dedicated computer store
other than small repair shops which also sold new computers. But mainly
Commodores and Ataris.

I went to Neckermann and Quelle stores back in the early 80s. I also
recall they had an Epson HX-20 and some portables from Casio. In the mid
80s they also had Amstrad (Schneider in Germany) computers. Soon after
Atari STs and Commodore Amigas were added to their portfolio.

I bought all my C64 and later Amiga in a department store (Allkauf) when
they were on discount. If I recall correctly I paid 469 DM for the C64 in
late 1984 and 889 DM for an Amiga 500 in February 1989.

And all computers were broken. The C64 showed garbage when turning
on. The replacement then worked. The Amiga crashed on hardware demanding
scene demos. I had to replace it twice.

[Ahem A Rivet's Shot]

On Mon, 05 Apr 2021 16:57:10 -0400

Post by Andreas Kohlbach

Post by Andreas Eder

Post by Andreas Kohlbach
Never seen it in Germany. But that might have been before "my
time". Wasn't until 1982 that I roamed electronic stores to see the new
computers and play with them. Suppose the Osborne wasn't even sold
there before.

I think it was in 1982 that I bought my Osborne. It was in the local
Osborne office in Munich, Germany.

There was an Osborne Office?

Yeah that's a surprise, but then Munich is full of surprises. I'd
still like to know where the Hell's Angels chapter hides there, I know it
exists I've seen them flying colours in Amsterdam (along with most of the
other chapters in Europe by the looks of things) but I saw not hide nor hair
of them when I lived in Munich and it's hard to imagine them being there.

Post by Andreas Kohlbach
Okay, Munich has roughly 10 times the number of citizens of the town I
grew up in. I cannot recall that we had any dedicated computer store

Also about ten times the population of the town I grew up in, yet
in 1978 the Tandy franchise I was working in before college became the
town's first computer store (first there was the TRS-80, then the PET and
Apple ][, Cromemco Z3, Northstar Horizon, Sol ... and then it went crazy) -
but then that town was Cambridge.

[Joseph Harley]

Post by Andreas Kohlbach
Happy birthday first "portable" computer for the masses.

Excellent! An underrated machine!

How far we've come...
--
Joe Harley

Certified RISC OS and Acorn freak.

Still uses RISC OS 5 almost daily.

Has a pretty much empty website @ https://jharley.codeberg.page

Mildly updated Gemini capsule @ gemini://tilde.club/~rebello

Can also be found on IRC: rebello @ freenode