The real portable PC pioneer and his India connection

April 2011 marks the 30th anniversary of the world's first commercially produced portable computer --  no,we are not taking of the IBM PC or ther Apple Macintosh, but the Osborne -1, a suitcase sized machine, that predated it -- the brainchld of maverick inventor Adam Osborne.  Sadly, he lacked the commercial means  to market it globally. It was a machine that ran on  the CP/M operating system ( that came before MS DOS)  and used a ZiLog chip. It cost $ 1795 in 1981.

Osborne had a  strong India connection.   He was raised by an English father and Polish mother in Thiruvannamalai in Tamil Nadu, India   in Ramana Maharishi's ashram ( that is the young Adam with the Maharishi n the photo) and spoke fluent Tamil. 

When the Osborne computer failed,Adam went to created Paperback software but this too was shortlived due to  copyright problems. Osborne  came to India in the mid 1990s having lost all his money  and lived with his  sister Katya Douglas in Kodaikanal where he died at the age of 64 in March 2003, virtually unknown. ( there were exceptions: see this story in The Hindu. http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/2003/03/26/stories/2003032605151300.htm

and the paper's obit: www.hindu.com/thehindu/2003/03/26/stories/2003032605131300.htm  )

April 18 2011