Talk:Osborne Computer Corporation

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[edit] Osborne spelling

I have just taken my "OSBORNE 1 - User's Reference Guide" from my bookshelf and I can say with great certainty that my copy spells the name O.S.B.O.R.N.E. - I am changing the spelling on the Osborne page accordingly - Gaz 14:23 Mar 25, 2003 (UTC)

Ha! And I typed my contribution to this entry on one of those wonderful old rebadged Honeywell 101WN keyboards that Osborne used to supply and I hoard like a miser, only for use with my favourite machines - complete with the OSBORNE badge on in in plain sight. Tannin
The keyboard I am using now has a "Honeywell" badge proudly displayed - More on the Osborne page... Google searches seem to say that the Aussie company was an "Osborne" also. I lived through that era, and I seems to remember that the Aussie "Osborne" company made its early money selling the Osborne 1 and kept on using the name even after the US OCC entity went belly up. Places The Guide back on the bookshelf next to "Programming the 6502" and sighs. - Gaz 14:55 Mar 25, 2003 (UTC)
Rodney Zaks? I was a Z-80 man myself. :) I still have my copy. And yes, this is the Australian Osborne I'm talking about. The keyboard I'm typing on right now is off an Osborne 486DX/4. They used to always use Honywell 101WN keyboards. Mostly they used to have the Osborne badge applied, but not always. Best keyboard ever made. :) Tannin
Forgot to mention the copy of "Z80 Assembly Language Programming" by Leventhal next book along - I just did a Wiki search for "Osborne" and there are way too many for this page to occupy Osborne. I am moving this page over to Osborne Computer Corporation and making Osborne into a context resolution (disambig... how do you spell that) page. There are links to Osborne 1 and Adam Osborne (RIP) that some kind soul will fill out I'm sure (just not me tonight). - Gaz 15:12 Mar 25, 2003 (UTC)

[edit] Osborne Effect?

One question because I'm reluctant to just go in and make the change wholesale. This article blames OCC's demise on the higher price of the Osborne Executive and implies OCC prematurely pulled the Osborne 1 off the market. Every account I've read says Adam Osborne mentioned the Executive a few months before it was ready to ship, so would-be purchasers shunned the Osborne 1 in order to wait for the Executive, which killed Osborne 1 sales and filled warehouses with suddenly sales-proof product. Is this accurate? -- Dave Farquhar 23:46 Mar 26, 2003 (UTC)

You are stretching my memory now, Dave. It's been ... er ... almost 20 years now. But yes, I think that you have it pretty right. The O1 was wildly successful, but by '83 the IBM PC had been out for two years and the market was clearly swinging away from the once-invincible Z-80/CPM systems on the desktop. Only in portables did the Z-80 still rule, and even there the writing was on the wall: competition was fierce, notably from the Kaypro family, and margins were shrinking fast. The Osborne, though still selling well, was starting to look out-of-date. If they didn't announce some 16-bit product, the market would pass them by. If they did ..... well, you know what happened. I have a shed full of Byte and APC back-issues, which could document this (or perhaps demonstrate that my memory ain't what i used to be!), but sorting through them would be a non-trivial task. Tannin 23:59 Mar 26, 2003 (UTC)
So the question is whether the product Osborne prematurely bragged about was the Osborne Executive (which was released in May 1983) or the Osborne Vixen (there's not much information about it on the 'net, but it sounds like it was intended to be a dual Z80/8088 machine and run both CP/M and MS-DOS, though I don't know if that's what they actually delivered). A search of Usenet didn't bring up much of anything, other than a 1985 post talking about "the new Osborne Vixen," which I remember seeing in a Personal Computing article about CP/M in 1985 or so. I think I lost all my mid-'80s mags in one of my moves. :( Dave Farquhar 03:22 Mar 27, 2003 (UTC)
Does anyone know reference to the MS-DOS compatibility of the Vixen? The Osborne brochures shown at [| The Obsolete Computer Museam's VIxen] entry say nothing about MS-DOS. Andrew Langmead

[edit] Overstating the Osborne Effect

As a follow up to the question above, the information in this article does not match that given in the Osborne Effect regarding how much influence Adam Osborne's announcement actually had on the demise of the company. According to that article, which is sourced better than this one (which to me makes it more reputable), a lot of the problems came down to corporate mismanagement, purchasing and manufacturing decisions. See the article for more information. This informations needs to be included in this article. --Lendorien 18:00, 12 March 2007 (UTC)


[edit] Domestic trading

If a Finnish company trade using the Osborne name domestically, doesn't that imply that they trade with that name in Finland? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.152.213.222 (talk) 16:18, 7 February 2008 (UTC)

Yup. --Gp75motorsports REV LIMITER 12:00, 13 February 2008 (UTC)