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A podcast about home computers of the late 70's through the 80's. NEW SPONSORSHIPS! 8-Bit Classics is a great place to get video cables, power supplies and more for a wide variety of vintage computer platforms. Arcade Shopper has a wide variety of hard-to-find items for a large number of platforms.

Apr 26, 2019

Episode 90 - Interview with Lee Felsenstein (Osborne 1)

Welcome to episode 90 of the Floppy Days Podcast for April, 2019.

In the timeline for personal computer introductions, we are now in the year 1981.  For this episode, and actually the next couple as well, we are going to be talking about the Osborne 1.

The Osborne 1 was the first commercially successful portable microcomputer, released on April 3, 1981 by Osborne Computer Corporation.  It was powered by the Z80 CPU, weighed 24.5 lb, cost US$1,795, and ran the CP/M operating system. It was powered from a wall socket, as it had no on-board battery, but is a portable device since it can be hand-carried when packed.  The computer shipped with a large bundle of software that was almost equivalent in value to the machine itself.

The Osborne 1 was the brain child of Adam Osborne and was brilliantly engineered by Lee Felsenstein.  So, who better to have help me talk about the machine than Lee Felsenstein himself. To kick off this series, we’re going to spend some time with Lee talking about his time before and after the Osborne 1.  And then in the next show we will talk about the history surrounding the Osborne 1 itself. Finally, we will cover the usual computer topics such as tech specs, emulators, Web sites, and more.

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Lee Felsenstein Interview