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In 1983, the Osborne Computer
Company announced a successor, the Executive
model OCC-2 (seen here above, right), with
a larger screen and a cooling fan.
Shortly thereafter, they announced
the next system, the Vixen, an MS-DOS compatible
portable.
Unfortunately, potential customers
stopped buying the Osborne 1, waiting for
the Executive and the Vixen, which wasn't
even ready to ship yet. Additionally, the
new Kaypro was now available for less money.
Osborne sales plummeted and Osborne quickly
ran out of money and filed for bankruptcy
in September of 1983.
It probably wasn't the company's
fault, since by this time most of the serious
computer users were gravitating towards the
new IBM PC, which had already been available
since 1981.
Anything that wasn't IBM compatible
was bound to fail. In 1983, the Compaq Portable
came out - a portable computer similar to
the Osborne, except that it was IBM compatible
and ran MS-DOS. It wasn't a great success.
This Executive Model OCC-2
has been sitting in my father's office garage
for the last 5 years, and was coated with
what I will describe as "asphaltic, brake
dust-like material" and I am being kind
in that description. I cleaned the exterior
case for 30 minutes with my home sink sponge
and 15 sheets of paper towel before I unsealed
the case. And you know what? The interior
was totally clean. I powered it up, and inserted
a boot disk and got a nice and clean C:\DOS
prompt!
I
immediately programmed in the first DOS program
I learned when I was 10 years old:
10: PRINT "SCROTUM"
20: RUN
30: GOTO 10
I laughed like a little 10-year-old-schoolboy
once again...my old childhood friend Bob
Z will howl in laughter on seeing this.
--Tony
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