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The story of the 1991 HP DOS Palmtop
Evolving from an enhanced calculator... to a full DOS compatible PC in your pocket.
November 20, 2023
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The HP 100 / 200 LX palmtops are nothing short of spectacular little machines. Pocket-sized, clamshell, battery powered, MS-DOS computers — with a fascinating (and highly useful) array of hardware and software.

Want to use a modem? Expand storage and functionality with a PCMCIA card? Run full DOS software — and even Windows 3.0 — on the go? All were possible with these little, hand-held marvels.

And, when I say, “Run Windows 3.0”… I really mean it. Here is a picture taken by a Lunduke Journal Community member of their own, personal HP 200LX. Running a full edition of Windows 3.0 (in Real Mode — the 200LX’s 80186 CPU doesn’t support Protected Mode).

But how did these amazing little pocket computers come to be? Let’s take a little tour of the history of the HP LX line, which all started in 1988 at Hewlett-Packard… with a product idea code-named “Cheetah”.

Note: Much of this history is compiled from the notes and memories of Everett Kaser, a programmer who worked on this project (and many others) at HP, combined with bits and pieces gleaned over years of study of these wonderful computers.

1988 - Codename “Cheetah”

 
 

It all started in Corvallis, Oregon — a small city, around an hour and a half outside of Portland, Oregon — at the office known as the “Corvallis Division”.

Image courtesy: hpmuseum.net

The Corvallis Division had already seen some noteworthy success in developing multiple HP computers, including the HP 85A in 1980:

The original idea for “Cheetah” was to be a personal information manager pocket device, powered by the Saturn CPU — which was already in use by multiple HP calculators and ranged from 640 kHz up to around 8 MHz.

The Saturn CPU from an HP 48SX calculator

What’s more, the entire system would run on just 32KB of RAM and use a nearly identical physical design to the HP 19B calculator (with a vertical clamshell design, with a keyboard on the left).

1989 - Codename “Jaguar”

In early 1989, the team made the decision to come up with a new physical form factor. It was at this point that the codename for the project was changed to “Jaguar”.

Instead of keeping to the same look of the HP 19B seen above… they would make a design using a more standard clamshell — with a screen on top, and keyboard on bottom. Like a traditional laptop. But pocket-sized.

And thank heavens they made that change. Because it just wouldn’t have been as cool had they stuck with that original, side-by-side design.

Everything else, though, still remained the same. The Saturn CPU. Not running DOS. Basically just a calculator… but with a lot of personal information management type software built in.

It was also decided that this device needed a spreadsheet program. An idea that would radically alter the direction of the project.

Lotus 1-2-3 leads to MS-DOS

Imagine yourself back in 1989. Now. When I say “Spreadsheet Software”… who do you think of?

You think of Lotus 1-2-3. That’s who.

And, as luck would have it, Lotus had an internal goal of working with a hardware vendor to create what they called a “Portable 1-2-3 Machine”. It seemed like a match made in heaven! HP could develop the hardware and some of the software, and Lotus could provide 1-2-3 (and also develop some of the other software components).

There was just one problem: Lotus 1-2-3 didn’t run on the (very limited) Saturn CPU. It ran on DOS. With an Intel 8086 class CPU.

So the team at HP made the — incredibly wise — decision to ditch the Saturn CPU and turn the “Jaguar” project into a DOS compatible computer. Intel processor and all.

Initially, while “Jaguar” was going to be DOS compatible… they were not going to allow any random DOS software to run. It was going to be locked down to only run the software supplied on the ROM of the device (from HP and Lotus). Quickly this was relaxed, and the ability to drop to a standard MS-DOS prompt was added.

Because… it was iust such an obvious thing to do.

1991 - The HP 95LX

Development of this new 8086, DOS powered device — now dubbed “Jaguar II” — moved ahead at an incredibly fast pace, with the release planned to happen just 13 months after the basic specs were decided upon. Software, hardware, all of it.

Image courtesy: palmtoppaper.com

In the end, the HP 95LX managed to ship just a couple months later than planned — in April of 1991. Which is darned impressive considering the massive investment in both hardware and software.

The final 95LX shipped with an NEC V20 CPU (which was an 8088 compatible processor at 5.37 MHz), 1MB of RAM, and up to 32MB of removable storage. The operating system was MS-DOS 3.22, which booted from ROM.

All of this was powered by AA batteries. Which, let’s face it, is pretty cool.

It included a host of custom built, personal information management software and — of course — Lotus 1-2-3.

Image courtesy: oldcomputers.net

Just look at it. Full QWERTY keyboard. Even has a 10-key numeric keypad. And Function keys. It might be a small keyboard, with little membrane keys… but it’s complete and surprisingly usable. It even has arrow keys (see the top right of the keyboard).

But it wasn’t perfect. Not yet.

The HP 95LX was an impressive (and incredibly fun to use) little DOS palmtop. But it had some problems.

The first was the display. A non-standard 240x128 LCD (with a 40x16 text mode). This presented significant compatibility issues with existing DOS software.

The second was the speed. The 8088 compatible CPU was a bit… to put it mildly… pokey. And a great deal of existing software simply required more oomph.

The third was battery life. It wasn’t bad, running off a set of AA batteries. But the team knew they could do better.

1993 - HP 100LX - Codename "Cougar"

Over the next two years the team worked to fix those problems — all while refining and improving the built-in software.

The, rather funky, 240x128 display of the 95LX was ditched for a standard, monochrome CGA display at 640×200. This allowed for greatly enhanced software compatibility with existing DOS software. Including, believe it or not, games.

For example here is Space Quest 3 running on an HP 200LX (which is using the same display and CPU of the HP 100LX):

Image courtesy: members of the Lunduke Journal Community

And here is a snapshot of SimCity running on the built-in CGA display:

Image courtesy: Palmtoptube.com

The NEC V20 “8088” CPU was swapped out for an 80186 compatible CPU (a “Hornet”) running at a higher clock speed. This was a significant boost in both horsepower and CPU functionality — which allowed the running of many software applications that traditionally required an 80286 processor.

Then the voltage was dropped from 5V to 3V. Effectively giving a significant gain in battery life.

Of course there was also the software upgrades — both to the included, in-house developed launcher and an upgrade to MS-DOS version 5.0.

All of which combined to make the 100LX and 200LX (which were nearly identical in most ways) extraordinarily compatible with desktop DOS-compatible PCs. Considering all of this was powered by two AA’s and could fit in your pocket?

Nothing short of spectacular.

And, to think, this all started out as what was — essentially — a nice HP calculator with some personal information manager stuff built-in.

Thank heavens the team decided they needed a spreadsheet.

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SUSE's ex-CEO ousted after greenlighting "risky deals"
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Thanks to new reporting from Reuters, we might be gaining new insight into what those reasons might be.

Apparently, under di Donato, the SUSE Board felt it was necessary to create a new "Deal Desk" to research and authorize any sizable corporate deal -- to ensure that it was not a "high risk" deal for SUSE.  Even going so far as to issue a warning, to shareholders, about such potentially risky existing deals.

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From the Reuters article:

"SUSE may enter into high-risk or commercially inappropriate deals if it does not exercise effective control over the Sales organization," it said in the report. The company noted that "'Commercial governance' is a newly identified risk this year" and a heatmap in the report ranked the risk as "possible" and its impact on the business as "high".

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It turns out... big, risky deals.  And those new deals did not get reviewed by that "Deal Desk".

"According to four documents reviewed by Reuters and two of the people with knowledge of the situation, Di Donato greenlighted the commercial terms of a roughly $1.4 million sale to South African utility Eskom in late January, bypassing the deal desk's scrutiny in order to speed the process, less than two weeks after SUSE told investors the desk would help to improve controls."

Reuters obtained internal SUSE emails that appear to corroborate this:

"On January 30,  after commercial terms of the Eskom deal had been agreed, a senior SUSE executive said in an email to other company officials that the terms had not been submitted to the deal desk.

 

In late February, an executive told colleagues in an email that the sale had not been scrutinized by the deal desk."

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November 29, 2023
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Wikimedia profit, assets, and executive wages explode in 2023
(And yet Wikipedia claims to desperately need your donations.)

The Wikimedia Foundation (the organization which runs and controls Wikipedia) has just published their annual financial report for the current year -- and they made a mountain of money.

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Including salaries for their executives.  In an extreme way.

At this point, they are Scrooge McDuck swimming through the money in their vault.

Yet, if you go to Wikipedia.org right now, you will be told -- with a great deal of urgency and alarm -- that "it will soon be too late to help us" and that they desperately need you to "please give".

This is one of the least dire-sounding plea for donations in quite some time.

Let's take a quick tour of Wikimedia's current financials to see exactly how rich they are... and how they truly are using those donations.  (And exactly how rich their executives are growing.)

See also: "The Wiki Piggy Bank -- Wikimedia grows rich as Wikipedia donations are used for political causes"

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And that's just at first glance.

The deeper you dig, the more money you find.

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November 27, 2023
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openSUSE ditches recognizable, beloved logo
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Note: This article is not a joke.  It is not satire.  It is a very real -- and very stupid -- thing that is happening right now.  And, while it may only impact a small portion of the Linux-using world, it is simply too ridiculous to not talk about.

I've talked about the problems with openSUSE a few times before.  It is an historically significant piece of the Linux world... one which I used to sit on the Board of.  I have a deep fondness for openSUSE, despite the many problems, and gross mismanagement, it currently faces.

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The logo.

It may be a small thing... but it's important.

The openSUSE chameleon is one of the most recognizable and beloved logos and mascots in the Linux world (perhaps only second to Tux the Penguin, himself).

The current, longtime openSUSE logo and mascot.

I used to go to Linux conferences with boxes full of hundreds of stuffed openSUSE chameleon plushies... people clammored for them.  I would stand on stage and toss them out to people, often literally jumping up and down for them.  Those boxes would be empty within moments.  That logo / mascot was instantly recognizable, on sight.

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Right now, the openSUSE membership is voting one which proposed logo to replace it with.  Here's a sampling.

Seriously.  One of these might be the new openSUSE logo.

In all honesty... I can't decide which of those logos I hate the most.  And what, exactly, is that weird aligator on the right doing to the poor... is that an iOS app icon?  You know what.  I don't even want to know.

Which abomination will the openSUSE members choose to replace their existing, recognizable, beloved logo?  It will be interesting to see, when voting finishes.

"Interesting" in the same way that "sneezing out a giant booger onto your computer screen and then trying wipe it up with your sleeve only to realize that you now have a pretty big booger on your sleeve" is... "interesting".

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