RIP Mr. Kay, a man of the mind.
I had one of those.
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
Tell Steve Jobs when you get to heaven that a Kaypro was the first notebook...and still better than a Mac. :-)
I learned a few things on a Kaypro II compact computer. I was just thinking about it a couple of days ago.
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.
RIP.
I had one to use as a remote terminal and data collector. I would write programs on it and send to Data General Mini Computers. Does that date me? They were expensive though.
I used to sell a dual 8” floppy system built into a desk. Favorite vertical market was temp employment agencies. My brother modified the software for day labor operators and called the software BUMMS (Basic Undesirable Mendicant Management System).
My first computer was a Kaypro II and it worked so well I bought a Kaypro 10 as soon as it was available. Next, I purchased the Bondwell-16 with the speech synthesizer and I got less work done because I kept making it say silly stuff.