History of notebook computers

[Roger Merchberger]

Rumor has it that Curt @ Atari Museum may have mentioned these words:
>Gee... lets just completely overlook the Apple Mac Portable

Oh, they didn't overlook it - check page 5 under their "Flops" listing... :-/

They have an awfully shoddy way of considering "flops but technically 
advanced so it's good" like the Gavilan SC, but "flops but technically 
advanced so it's still a flop" like the IBM Thinkpad 701C (Think Butterfly 
keyboard - the only laptop keyboard that even came *close* to the keyboard 
on my Tandy 200.)

>  and mention the Powerbook 100 instead...   The Tandy 100 could've gotten 
> a mention,

It did (but just barely) at the same time as the Epson HX-20... but their 
supposed facts of "but 16K didn't get you far, even in 1982..." Pffft. 16K 
was a darned good start back then, and the Tandy 100 could go to 32K 
without trouble; much more depending on how much you wanted to spend on 3rd 
party schtuff.

They did totally err on another thing - the first "full clamshell" laptop 
was the Tandy 200, which came out in '85, 4 years before the NEC UltraLite.

>  even the Atari Portfolio could've gotten a mention too.

Or the STacy...

>Its times like this, you want to roll those mags up and shove it up the 
>editors arse !!! ;-)

Or just not buy it. ;-)

Their idea of the 13 "critical machines" to me is disappointing - The Sony 
Picturebook at best has had minimal market impact and is rarely seen 
outside Japan; they whine about the Mac Portable's price of $7000 yet $3000 
for an underpowered machine is OK (ooOOoo but it's got a webcam!) Pfft. 
They're idiots, plain and simple.

Keep moving, nothing to see here...
Roger "Merch" Merchberger

--
Roger "Merch" Merchberger   | "Profile, don't speculate."
SysAdmin, Iceberg Computers |     Daniel J. Bernstein
zmerch at 30below.com          |