osbourne executive

The Executive is the successor of the Osborne 1, from which it keeps the good points and correct its flaws. More memory, bigger screen, more powerful software and... higher price.

When closed, the Executive looks like a sewing machine! Once opened, the detachable keyboard is connected to the main unit through a quite short coiled cord. The keyboard can be tilted for a better typing. It has a separated numeric keypad and 4 cursor keys. The layout of these keys is not very convenient. There is "left" & "up" on one row, and "down" & "right" on the other...

The front panel of the Executive is divided in four parts. In the center, one can find the built-in amber monitor (13 x 10 cm) bigger than the Osborne 1 one. On the right hand side, there is the fan grid, the Executive logo and the on/off button. The two 5.25" half-height disk drives, are mounted horizontaly just above an empty disk storage space. Different connectors are placed at the bottom of the front panel: two RS232c/serial (for printers and modem), one Centronics and the keyboard connector. Next to them are brightness and contrast control knobs, as well as a reset button.

At the back of the system is the handle to carry the system once it is closed. Under this handle is the fan trap door, which you have to open before starting to work. The Executive has of course its own power supply unit, but what is more uncommon, is that it can accept 110v or 220v, the system will convert both. This was useful for people traveling a lot.

The built-in monitor was the main flaw of the Osborne 1. This tiny screen was displaying 52 of 132 virtual columns (this was done by scrolling), resulting in 2 mm high characters! The Executive has a wider screen which can really display 80 columns, though some critics said it was still too small. The characters can be displayed in normal mode, half intensity, inverse or blink. Two character sets are available, and independant windows can be defined.

The Executive was delivered with a binder containing 14 disks! There was CP/M+, Wordstar 3.3, Mailmerge, Supercalc 1.12, Pearl (file manager), Microsoft Basic 5.22, CBasic 2 and several tools. The Executive can also read disks from many other systems: Osborne 1, IBM PC under CP/M 86, DEC VT 180, Xerox 820, Cromenco Minidisk and UCSD p. It can also emulate several terminal types: VT 100, ADM, Hazeltine, HP... and know several communication protocols: 3270, 2780, 3780 and X25.

Though most reviews said it had 128 KB, the Executive is equiped with 124 KB from which only 60 KB are left free for the user. The missing 4K was because of the bank switching it couldn't switch the whole 64K only 60K could be switched the 4K had to remain common. The memory can however be expanded to 384 KB.

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[rudeydudey05]

Just imagen firing this baby up in Starbucks next to the person with the latest slimline laptop lol.

[Unicornguy]

That's a nice looking machine right there. Microsoft BASIC. Bill Gates and Paul Allen put alot of hours of coding in to Microsoft BASIC. I'd love to have one of these machines.

[TheGeekishGuy]

It looks like the macbook air has a competitor...

[ravenloftable]

Pretty machine.

[fredo51]

Zork or GTFO

[gelecopter]

almost laptop...

[VanishingKitsap]

My God, that's an ENORMOUS screen for an Osborne portable! And it's orange in color?

[delorean00]

I love this!! Thanks for uploading. Please take good care of this awesome piece of history. I have a few old computers. I have the first Compaq Portable that looks very similar to this.

[testingforms]

Does this have a CMOS battery? I have one as well and it should be working. I am worried about a leaking battery if there is one. I was just reminded of CMOS batteries today. Doh!

[proz1]

Nuclear Lunch Detected

[DiplexofRome]

thats the first laptop??? I think the table couldent even have it on it

[TheXemion]

ok it started working,now let's go on facebook lol!