Archaic term for the first portables, which really weren't. The first IBM PC-clone which i ever used was a Compaq. I suppose it was revolutionary. It was about the size of a large carry-on bag, and weighed about as much as a 19 inch CRT monitor. This was because it had a small monochrome green and black CRT monitor built into it, with two 5.25" floppy drives beside that. I'm not describing this well. This large box, which was roughly the size of a modern mini-tower, and weighed about as much, had a flip-up plastic handle at the top, by which you could carry it short distances before it killed your fingers. To operate it, you tipped it onto its side, and the bottom came off and had a keyboard on it. Where the keyboard had been (once the bottom of the case, now the front of the machine) was a black void, in which was set the aforementioned monitor, the two floppy drives, and the hole from which the cable for the keyboard sprang. It was called a ``luggable'' because you could ``lug'' it, implying it could be carried around, but was ungainly and heavy. It had no battery, and was very noisy. The only software my father ran on it was Lotus, and my first use of a computer to write a letter was to write a short note in Lotus 1-2-3 and then print it up.

Log in or register to write something here or to contact authors.