Adam Osborne was born in Thailand in 1939, spent much of his childhood in Tamil Nadu, moved to the UK at the age of 11, and went on to be known for Osborne 1, a runaway success in the field of computing in the early ’80s. He recently passed away, at the age of 64.

Graduating with a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Birmingham University, Osborne relocated to the United States and completed a PhD in chemical engineering, going on to work with California-based Shell Oil. In the early ’70s, he was given the job of writing instructions for Intel’s new microprocessor.

Osborne continued freelance technical writing,and in 1972, formed Osborne and Associates to write simple, easy-to-read manuals for computers. He also wrote a book entitled The Value of Power, which was later titled An Introduction to Microcomputers. Osborne created his own publishing company—Osborne Books—which published over 40 books on computers. In 1979, Osborne sold his publishing company to McGraw-Hill. Around this same time, Osborne began writing columns for computer magazine Interface Age, and later, for Infoworld.

In March 1980, at the West Coast Computer Faire, Osborne approached Lee Felsenstein, who had previously been designing circuit boards for processor technology, about starting a hardware company that would not only produce an affordable, portable computer but would offer bundled software with the machine. Following Osborne’s specifications, Felsenstein designed a portable computer that would fit under an airplane seat, weighed only 24 pounds, had a 52-column display that would fit on a five-inch screen, contained a cushioning tube, and had two disk drives. Osborne introduced his new computer, aptly named the Osborne 1, at the West Coast Computer Faire in April 1981.

In the company’s first year, Osborne sold $5.8 million worth of the Osborne 1 computer. By the end of 1982, he had sold $68.8 million, or as many as 10,000 units a month. Unfortunately, this growth was followed by a plunge into bankruptcy two years later.

Osborne published a memoir of his experience in 1984, entitled Hypergrowth. He then jumped into a new venture he called Paperback Software—based on the idea that software could be sold like mass-market paperbacks. That venture ran aground after Paperback was sued by rival Lotus Development Corp in a high-profile case that alleged Paperback’s spreadsheet program too closely resembled Lotus’ own 1-2-3 program. Osborne and Paperback parted ways in 1990. Osborne’s health began to decline in 1992, leading him to move to Kodaikanal in India to live out the rest of his life with his sister, Katya. On March 18, Adam Osborne passed away—after a decade-long battle with organic brain syndrome.--DQ