| 词条 | Adam Osborne |
| 释义 |
| name = Adam Osborne | image = Osborneportrait.gif | image_size = 150px | caption = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1939|3|6|mf=y}} | birth_place = Bangkok, Thailand | death_date = {{death date and age|2003|3|18|1939|3|6}} | death_place = Kodaikanal, India | residence = | citizenship = | nationality = | ethnicity = | field = Computer Engineering | work_institution = Osborne Computer Corporation | alma_mater = {{Plainlist|
}} | doctoral_advisor = | doctoral_students = | known_for = Osborne 1 }} Adam Osborne (March 6, 1939 – March 18, 2003) was a Thailand-born British-American{{citation needed|date=March 2019}} author, book and software publisher, and computer designer who founded several companies in the United States and elsewhere. He is best known for introducing the Osborne 1, the first commercially successful portable computer. Early lifeOsborne was born to a British father and Polish mother in Bangkok, Thailand on 6 March 1939.[1] His father, Arthur Osborne, was a teacher of eastern religion and philosophy[1] and a lecturer in English at Chulalongkorn University. All members of the family were fluent in the Tamil language. He spent World War II in southern India, with his mother.[1] He attended Presentation Convent School in Kodaikanal until Class 6.{{citation needed|date=June 2018}} In 1950, the Osborne family relocated to England.[2] From the age of 11, he was educated at a Catholic boarding school in Warwickshire, England.[1] He graduated with a degree in chemical engineering from the University of Birmingham in 1961,[1] and received his PhD from the University of Delaware in 1968.[1] It was while living in the United States that he learned to write computer code.[1] He obtained a position as a chemical engineer with Shell Oil, in California, but was dismissed.[1] PublishingOsborne was a pioneer in the computer book field, founding a company in 1972 that specialized in easy-to-read computer manuals. By 1977, Osborne & Associates had 40 titles in its catalogue. In 1979, it was bought by McGraw-Hill and continued as an imprint of McGraw-Hill, "McGraw-Hill/Osborne".[10][2] He also wrote several books.[2] One of them, An Introduction To Microcomputers, sold 300,000 copies.[1] ComputersOsborne was known to frequent the Homebrew Computer Club's meetings around 1975. He was best known for creating the first commercially available portable computer, the Osborne 1, released in April 1981. It weighed 24.5 pounds (12 kg), cost US$1795—just over half the cost of a computer from other manufacturers with comparable features—and ran the popular CP/M 2.2 operating system.[14] It was designed to fit under an airline seat.[3] At its peak, Osborne Computer Corporation shipped 10,000 units of "Osborne 1" per month.[4] Osborne was one of the first personal computing pioneers to understand fully that there was a wide market of buyers who were not computing hobbyists: the Osborne 1 included word processing and spreadsheet software.[14] This was at a time when IBM would not bundle hardware and software with their PCs, selling separately the operating systems, monitors, and even cables for the monitor. Adam Osborne's experience in the computer industry gave his new company credibility.[5] Osborne Computer Corporation advertisements compared Adam Osborne's influence on the personal computer market to Henry Ford's influence on transportation.[6] It is said that in 1983, Osborne bragged about two advanced new computers his company was developing. These statements destroyed consumer demand for the Osborne 1, and the resulting inventory glut forced Osborne Computer to file for bankruptcy on September 13, 1983. This phenomenon, a pre-announcement of a new product causing a catastrophic collapse in demand for older ones, became known as the Osborne effect, but according to some new sources the real reason for Osborne Computer's bankruptcy was management errors[7] and insufficient cash flow.[8] HypergrowthAfter Osborne Computer's collapse, Adam Osborne wrote a best-selling memoir of his experience, Hypergrowth: The Rise and Fall of the Osborne Computer Corporation, with John C. Dvorak, which was published in 1984.[9] SoftwareIn 1984, Osborne founded Paperback Software International Ltd., a company that specialized in inexpensive computer software. Its advertisements featured Osborne himself, arguing that if telephone companies applied the same logic to their pricing as software companies, a telephone would cost $600. One of its products was VP-Planner, an inexpensive clone of Lotus 1-2-3, which led to legal action. In 1987, Lotus sued Paperback Software. As a result of the lawsuit, consumer confidence waned for Paperback Software, and its revenues dropped 80% by 1989, preventing the firm from getting venture capital for expansion. In February 1990, the case went to court and on June 28, the court ruled that Paperback Software's product, by copying Lotus 1-2-3's look and feel menu interface, violated Lotus's copyright.[10] Osborne stepped down from Paperback Software the same year.[2] Paperback's database application, VP-Info continued to sell well for many more years, and acquired a second life as Sharkbase.[11] His final venture, in 1992, was to found the company Noetics Software, to work on artificial intelligence.[1] Personal life and deathOsborne was a member of Mensa.[1] He married - and divorced - twice, firstly in the mid 1960s, to Cynthia Geddes, an American,[1] and later to Barbara Burdick (Zelnick), Osborne had three children.[12] Both former wives and all his children survived him.[1] In 1992, Osborne returned to India in declining health, suffering from a brain disorder that triggered frequent minor strokes. He died in his sleep on March 18, 2003, in Kodaikanal, India, aged 64.[1][13][14] References1. ^1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 {{cite web |last1=Schofield |first1=Jack |authorlink1=Jack Schofield (journalist) |title=Obituary: Adam Osborne |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2003/mar/27/guardianobituaries.jackschofield |website=The Guardian |accessdate=28 March 2019 |date=27 March 2003}} 2. ^1 2 3 {{Cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/adam-osborne-36407.html |title=Adam Osborne: Pioneer of the portable computer |date=2003-04-05 |work=The Independent |access-date=2018-06-26 |language=en-GB |df=mdy-all}} 3. ^{{cite web|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/doc/198207/fallows-computer/2 |title=Living With a Computer|first=James|last=Fallows |date=July 1982 |publisher=Atlantic Magazine |accessdate=May 21, 2010}} 4. ^{{cite journal|first=Leonard G.|last=Grzanka |title=Requiem for a Pioneer |publisher=Portable Computer |date=January 1984}} 5. ^{{cite news | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dj4EAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PP1&rview=1&pg=PA1#v=onepage&q&f=false | work=InfoWorld | title=Osborne Introduces Portable Computer | accessdate=April 4, 2011 | author=Hogan, Thom | date=1981-04-13 | publisher=IDG | pages=1}} 6. ^1 2 {{cite news | url=https://archive.org/stream/byte-magazine-1982-09/1982_09_BYTE_07-09_Computers_and_the_Disabled#page/n31/mode/2up | title=The $1795 Business Computer that is changing the way people go to work. | work=BYTE | date=September 1982 | accessdate=19 October 2013 | author=Advertisement | pages=31}} 7. ^[https://web.archive.org/web/20050618022709/https://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20050616.html I, Cringely . The Pulpit . The Osborne Effect | PBS] 8. ^Technologizer 9. ^Osborne, Adam (1984). Hypergrowth: The Rise and Fall of the Osborne Computer Corporation, {{ISBN|978-0-918347-00-8}}. 10. ^Lotus Dev. Corp. v. Paperback Software Int'l, 740 F. Supp. 37 (D. Mass. 1990) 11. ^Sharkbase/VP-Info User's Manual {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131224084311/http://www.intelligentwebware.com/sharkhlp.html |date=December 24, 2013 }} 12. ^1 John Markoff/New York Times. "Adam Osborne 64 Dies Was Pioneer of Portable PC New York Times Website [https://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/26/business/adam-osborne-64-dies-was-pioneer-of-portable-pc.html] 13. ^{{cite web|title=Adam Osborne, pioneer of PCs for people: dead at 64. His sister Katya Douglas (nee Osborne) continues to live in Kodaikanal. |date=March 2003 |publisher=Natural Science |author=Edward Teague |url=http://naturalscience.com/ns/news/news44.html |accessdate=2008-12-20 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090326232813/http://www.naturalscience.com/ns/news/news44.html |archivedate=March 26, 2009 |df=mdy }} 14. ^{{cite news|last1=Markoff|first1=John|title=Adam Osborne, 64, Dies; Was Pioneer of Portable PC|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/26/business/adam-osborne-64-dies-was-pioneer-of-portable-pc.html|accessdate=11 September 2017|work=The New York Times|date=26 March 2003}} External links
17 : 1939 births|2003 deaths|Computer hardware engineers|American technology writers|Indian people of Polish descent|Thai people of Polish descent|English emigrants to India|English emigrants to the United States|Alumni of the University of Birmingham|American Hindus|20th-century American businesspeople|University of Delaware alumni|Mensans|American emigrants to India|Thai people of English descent|Thai emigrants to the United Kingdom|British technology writers |
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