'80 Mbytes of storage for under $12k!' and other ad favorites through the years

ComputerWorld ^ | June 14, 2007 | Sharon Machlis

[So Cal Rocket]

Osborne 1

On this page:

Osborne 1

Computer Encyclopedia

 

Home > Library > Science > Computer Encyclopedia

Osborne I

The first portable computer, developed by Adam Osborne and introduced in 1981. Floppy disk based with 64K of memory, it used the CP/M operating system and a modified version of the WordStar word processor that would display only 40 characters at a time across its tiny 4.5" CRT. It cost $1,795, which was considerably inexpensive for a computer of that era. Weighing in at nearly 30 pounds and requiring AC power, the Osborne was really more "transportable" than a true portable.

The Osborne I

We might chuckle at this today compared to our ultra-sleek laptops, but, for its time, the Osborne I was breakthrough technology. Adam Osborne started a revolution. (Equipment courtesy of Alfred J. Young.)

[johnny7]

Even at my very young age, I could tell it was junk.

LMAO... that sounds like something I would say!

Some people just knew instinctively that these early personal PC's were more of future possibilities... rather than working solutions for the present. The Mac Classic was merely a glimpse into this future as well. Low memory... software limitations... slow... postscript still a couple of years away... they were nothing more than finicky, high-tech toys.

[uglybiker]

[jjm2111]

My dad has been in the comnputer business since there was one. He started working on mainframes that had vacuum tubes and now (pushing 70) is designing websites.

We had an Apple 2+ in the early eighties. It cost him $4000 is in like 1984 money. I thought booting up was so cool. I could play Red Storm Rising on it.The next was the 8086 clone. My 7th grade teacher said I couldn’t turn in reports done on Word. I actually printed out reports and then transposed them by writing them.

Now my Dad play Morrowind and writes scripts for it. On an online forum someone was boasting that, at 35, he was the oldest guy posting on the forum. My dad wrote in that he was 68.

[Army Air Corps]

I love these ads; they bring back so many fond memories.

A friend of mine once used an Atari 1040ST. He still has it and occasionally he boots it. He used to code his own games and other bits of software on it...in junior high.

[NerdDad]

My first computer.

Cost me about $2100 TTL. Built an RS-232 interface to tie it to a Royal electronic typewriter that cost me $1600

That package made me the first administrator in the Air Force to put a computer on a desktop at the squadron level.

I learned Wordstar, Supercalc and DB2 on the fly. It took me about 4 hours to set up and print the first Officer Effectiveness Report (OER). It paid for itself when it took 5 minutes each the next 4 times that I had to reprint it after the various colonels made changes.

Wound up learning BASIC on that thing and using it to fill out all the personnel forms the AF required.

The really cool part was that it and the Trash 80 that followed it so completely dazzled the inspection teams that came in that my office never actually got inspected the rest of the time I was in the AF.

[NerdDad]

I can’t believe you guys are saying such bad things about the Trash 80 and Timex.

After I wore out my Osborne, the TRS-80 Model 3 was a huge upgrade for me. And especially with that behemoth daisy wheel printer that doubled the speed of the Royal typewriter I had lashed to the Osborne.

After I got out of the AF, I went to work for a whiz kid programmer/accountant. We wrote a football statistics program in BASIC for the Timex Sinclair. We used it to provide near real time statistics for the radio broadcasts of the local high school football games. I say near real time because we had to wait for that POS thermal printer to print.

I loved doing that. It gave me a free pass to the press box for every game including playoffs.

[VOA]

Thanks for this thread.

It provoked me to finally Google something I’d heard from an old
geek that worked at UCLA about an early computer he fought with...
turns out the acronym he used was common knowlege.

IBM “CADET” = “Can’t Add, Doesn’t Even Try”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_1620

[Malsua]

I love this stuff!!

I was a purchaser for Inacom/Valcom (all defunct) back in 92. I was buying 4mb simms for $150/each and couldn’t keep them in stock.

I recall when the first 486/33 showed up in the shop. We all stared in awe. ROFL. I recall it cost about 2 grand at the time.

[VOA]

Sunday-evening bump

[Constitutionalist Conservative]

This is the first computer I ever purchased with my own money.

Ten years later, I had moved on to (comparatively) much better PCs. I gave the Jr away three times, and got it back three times. I finally ended up tossing it in the dumpster (don't tell anyone).

[jdm]

Looks like binoculars!