Andrew Kay, inventor who developed the Kaypro II compact computer, dies at 95

WaPo ^ | 9-14-14 | Steve Chawkins

[bigbob]

Andrew Kay, an inventor who pioneered the use of compact computers in the 1980s with Kaypro II, died Aug. 28 at an assisted living home in Vista, Calif. He was 95.

His son, David Kay, confirmed the death. The cause was not disclosed.

The Kaypro II weighed in at a mere 26 pounds, which is elephantine by today’s standards but was a technological breakthrough at the time. It was a favorite of early computer aficionados and briefly made Mr. Kay a high-tech titan. By 1990, he had filed for bankruptcy protection.

Mr. Kay was a charismatic inventor who scoffed at traditional management techniques and gave his factory workers and sales staff an unusual degree of freedom.

[bigbob]

Non Linear Systems was highly regarded for it's innovative products and management style, and the Kaypro was a solid piece of gear for the time.

RIP Mr. Kay, a man of the mind.

[98ZJ USMC]

I had one of those.

[bigbob]

are your arms back to being the same length yet? ;-)

[Moose4]

My next-door neighbor for two years in college had a Kaypro 4, I had a TRS-80 Model 4 dual-floppy. (This was 1984-86, by the way.) Mine was more comfortable to work at because the screen was bigger but that luggable was just so much cooler than my TRaSh-80.

}:-)4

[ExCTCitizen]

I had a Kaypro and it was a good machine in its day. Who would have thought you could go into a restaurant and get online? RIP Mr. Kay, old tech geeks will miss you..

Tell Steve Jobs when you get to heaven that a Kaypro was the first notebook...and still better than a Mac. :-)

[PLMerite]

[Dr. Sivana]

Tell Steve Jobs when you get to heaven that a Kaypro was the first notebook...and still better than a Mac. :-)

Aren't you forgetting Adam Osvorne and the Osborne computer? I did my thesis on one of those with Wordstar 3, coupled with an NEC Spinwriter.

[GeronL]

Only $1795!

oh wow....

lol

[arasina]

I learned a few things on a Kaypro II compact computer. I was just thinking about it a couple of days ago.

[PLMerite]

“I did my thesis on one of those with Wordstar 3, coupled with an NEC Spinwriter.”

You did anything constructive on that tiny screen?

[SkyDancer]

Can you imagine what kind of computer you can get today for that money? I thought this ad is in line with that:

[harpu]

I did some volume manufacturing and offshore sourcing consulting for Andy in the mid-80s. He was a VERY interesting man.

His operations were in an old converted elemenatary or middle school complex in Solana Beach. He mad very effective but inefficient use of the property. He employed lots & lots of Hispanics and middle-aged ladies throughout his manufacturing.

His son, David, was little more than a Southern California rich BRAT. Supposedly responsible (?) for sales & marketing...but, REALLY!!

I sat in the lobby one day waiting for long over an hour, for a scheduled meeting I had with David, only to learn (after impatiently asking his whereabouts) that he was gone for the day because the 'surf was up' and 'David' NEVER misses an opportunity to catch a good wave.

Mr. K's Obit

[Patton@Bastogne]

.


Adam Smith's fault ...


.

[Charles Martel]

Ah, memories! I used to get the First Osborne Group newsletter in the mail, even when the most numerous CP/M machines around were Commodore 128s.

[Dr. Sivana]

You did anything constructive on that tiny screen?

Yup, I wrote 2/3rds of a 65 page thesis on it on spring break. When I got back to college, I used Uniform-PC to read it into a PC's Limited '286 and imported it into WoredPerfect, which handled footnotes and foreign characters better. I also had to modify the LaserJet I print driver to print foreign characters easily. HPCL was largely composed of lower case letter-l, the number 1, zeroes, and capital letter O. It was hellish, but in a funny sort of way.

[TomServo]

I almost bought one...

[samtheman]

The price is interesting. Just under $2000. About what a good home system costs now. After inflation. After a vast expansion of computing power. Just about $2000 for a good home system.

I know cheaper is out there.

[kvanbrunt2]

yes i paid $1000 for an ibm memory board that had 2K of memory chips. It would not fit in the pc i owned so i bought a memory card that you could insert the chips into. The IBM board was soldered so i tried to unsolder using a wood burning tool. after that didn’t work i used the old reliable propane plumbing torch. Popped them out and put them in the 2K board. Installed oracle and ran with the 2k in extended memory. that was around 1989. ran for several years 24/7 crunched numbers each night from my buddies pc and prepared fax reports for stock selection (Goerlich/van Brunt Newsletter)

[bicyclerepair]

Apple IIe: just making page breaks required the manual.

On a..... wait for it...... tractor-feed dot matrix printer, YAY!

[Sawdring]

A picture to define the era it came from: