
World’s first laptop, 25 years old and still running - ttunguz
http://thenextweb.com/shareables/2010/10/26/worlds-first-laptop-25-years-old-and-running/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+TheNextWeb+(The+Next+Web+All+Stories)&utm_content=Google+Reader
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sp4rki
No windows button and a properly placed control key where it should be? The
caps lock is relegated to arrows territory? I'M FREAKING SOLD! Where do I get
one? xD

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lepton
The keys 'Z' and 'Y' are transposed as well.

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GFischer
That's the default German setup.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyboard_layout#QWERTZ>

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elliottcarlson
I still have my Epson HX-20 which predates this by 4 years and is wildly
considered to be the first "laptop" computer...

Specs: Dual 8bit Hitachi 6301 at 0.6 MHz, 16 kB RAM, 32 kB CMOS ROM

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epson_HX-20>

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FiddlerClamp
I had the first full-keyboard portable, the TRS-80 Model 100 which Dad was
still using into the 90s. I also had the very first ultralight laptop - the
NEC Ultralite (4lbs, no hard drive, solid-state!) back in '88.

Good times, but you spend a LOT to stay on the bleeding edge. :)

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petercooper
_and just like the Macbook Air of today it didn’t have a regular Hard Drive_

Just stretching a simile to breaking point there..

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justinweiss
I've still got one of these in a closet somewhere. I suppose it could be
called a laptop, depending on the size of your lap:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compaq_Portable>

(edit: on second thought, it most likely requires at least two laps.)

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RyanMcGreal
Me too. I haven't fired it up in at least a year, but last time I tried it
booted up with no problem other than some alarming smoke coming from the air
vent. Seeing that customized autoexec.bat float up in ghostly green letters
really brought me back.

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aidenn0
My dad had a Toshiba T1200, the successor to this one. He still uses it as a
serial terminal. On another note, due to its limited built-in storage, he ran
command.com through pklite!

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megablast
I remember doing that to loads of com files. That was with a 20mb hdd. You
knew every file on the HDD in those days.

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rhizome
1985? The Model 100 came out in 1983. Mine still works great.

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meelash
Maybe it doesn't count because it doesn't fold closed? :p

That's the one that runs for a day or something on just AA batteries, isn't
it?

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oofoe
I usually get a month of out of 4 AA's. It's very power efficient...

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tajddin
It really amazes me how far we've come in the last 25 years and how much has
remained the same. Here's to the next 25 and making fun of today's technology
:)

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adrianwaj
1991: Toshiba adds the first colour screens to laptops. From here on, portable
PCs become more than work-obsessed business tools, and begin to pull double
duty as entertainment machines.

[http://toshibalife.com/featured-articles/25-years-laptop-
inn...](http://toshibalife.com/featured-articles/25-years-laptop-innovation)

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Yaggo
" -- and weighed in at a whopping 4.1 Kilograms."

Not bad at all, considering the typical ~3 kg weight of many modern laptops.

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alexyoung
The first laptop I used in real life was an Acorn A4 in around 1993. When
things moved the screen blurred so much it was hard to use, but it did run
RISC OS which I liked back then.

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Luc
Everybody knows the GRiD Compass was the first laptop!
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grid_Compass>

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rbanffy
Sadly, no.

And that was a claim that didn't resist 15 seconds of googling.

There were a couple portables that could be called laptops before the
Toshibas. The TRS-80 model 100, its NEC cousin. Even if we are talking of MS-
DOS, PC-compatible computers, the Data General One predates this one by quite
a bit.

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joezydeco
And the Osborne 1 predates the DG-1 by 3 years, although it was a CP/M machine
(remember THAT?)

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rbanffy
Of course I remember them. However, an Osborne one is a laptop if you can use
it on your lap.

The Epson HX-20 laptop also ran CP/M (as an option, AFAIK).

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tocomment
Somewhat related. I have a 12 year old laptop with a broken CDROM. Is there a
way to load a lightweight linux using floppy disks or some other method?

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almost
If it has a USB port you can use either an external CDROM drive or a USB key
drive.

If it has a network port then you can make a network boot floppy quite easily.
This just contains enough to get the system booting off of an image retrieved
from a TFTP server over the network.

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tocomment
So no network port.

I can't figure out a way to tell it to boot from a USB thumb drive. It doesn't
list that option in the BIOS.

Would it still let me boot from an external CD ROM even though the BIOS
doesn't mention USB? Maybe I could buy one.

Otherwise, any other thoughts?

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almost
Maybe, it's probably more likely it can boot from a USB CD-ROM than from a USD
key. But I have no idea how much more likely.

Otherwise, you could maybe try a PCMCIA network card, assuming the laptop
supports that.

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lokijuhyhui
my first PC going to college in 1988, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PPC_512>
4.7Mhz, 512kb RAM and a floppy drive, it could run a fortran compiler (rather
slowly)

Although if you had access to a TV and a power socket at the destination my
Sinclair QL was probably a more capable and lighter 'portable'

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wil2k
Still got one. :)

It has an awesome design and it can also be seen in some movies (names don't
come to mind though, but I've seen them), e.g. painted in some fancy color. :)

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mironathetin
Very nice to see that machine again. I used one of these to write my first
application.

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tfh
The price was $1899. That's $3818 adjusted to inflation.

