3 ms·

Apricot Xen (not IBM PC/AT compatible) used Windows 1.0, 80286@7.5MHz, and had a paper-white monitor - was fantastic to use. Windows performed really well on it

by iam-TJ 3y ago

Apricot Xen (not IBM PC/AT compatible) used Windows 1.0, 80286@7.5MHz, and had a paper-white monitor - was fantastic to use. Windows performed really well on it.

twoodfin 3y ago
Managed to find a brochure! https://classic.technology/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/ApricotXEN.pdf https://classic.technology/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Aprico...
- a1o 3y ago
  That's a beautiful machine! The ball roll for mouse, the phone that fits the keyboard. Amazing aesthetics.
  - pavlov 3y ago
    Also the pixel art Apricot logo. Very nice. It almost feels like this is not an actual company or product, but a convincing retro design created by a designer today. I know Apricot was real, but something about it feels like it’s winking ironically, in a “what if this had taken off” kind of way. Imagine the pixel art Apricot on the back of a 2006 smartphone in that alternate universe. (Steve Jobs never went back to Apple and instead Apricot teamed up with ARM and Psion to create the Jesus Phone, turning Britain into the new Silicon Valley…)
- rasz 3y ago
  Release date October 1985 and it already had 1.44MB HD floppy :o
  - NikkiA 3y ago
    They were 720k not 1.44MB. I don't think apricot released anything with a 1.44MB before they gave up on the PC market.
    - rasz 3y ago
      damn marketing! >Twin 720K MicroFloppy drives offer 1.44 megabytes of mass storage but I cant see second FDD on the picture, not a spot for one.
      - iam-TJ 3y ago
        There were/are two front slots; the permutations were: 720KB FDD, blank 720KB FDD, 720KB FDD 720KB FDD, 20MB HDD (I also seem to recall seeing (blank,blank) for "dumb terminals" when Xenix and line cards were in the Xenix server. Could have up to 16 terminals hanging off the back when using Xenix.
        NikkiA 3y ago
        Those would be the 'Xen-WS' version, I once used one on a network in the mid 80s (85 or 86, couldn't say which with certainty, but it was while I was in secondary school*), the 'workstation' itself was still running DOS/Win1.x but all storage was on the network. I don't know if it was net booted or had DOS etc in ROM on the network card. * Although the network and classes were at the local college as some kind of crossover access, I recall another of the classes involved their lab of Apple IIe that had this weird gated access to the internet for email.
    - NikkiA 3y ago
      Replying to self to correct myself. The Qi series (microchannel based 386 and 486, the very last apricot PCs) had 1.44MB floppies
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
dfawcus 3y ago
Yeah - and I used one of them, and the Windows version on it. About all it got used for under windows were Reversi, and Write. It also came with WordStar 2000, which was a bit weird... The one I had access to had the small green screen monitor, originally from the Apricot PC (Xi?).
- MissTake 3y ago
  That was my first “work” computer. Came with MS-DOS 2.11 IIRC. Spent many an happy hour with it putting together various DB applications using Delta IV - a hierarchical database system.

by iam-TJ 3y ago

Apricot Xen (not IBM PC/AT compatible) used Windows 1.0, 80286@7.5MHz, and had a paper-white monitor - was fantastic to use. Windows performed really well on it.

twoodfin 3y ago

Managed to find a brochure! https://classic.technology/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/ApricotXEN.pdf https://classic.technology/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Aprico...

a1o 3y ago
That's a beautiful machine! The ball roll for mouse, the phone that fits the keyboard. Amazing aesthetics.
- pavlov 3y ago
  Also the pixel art Apricot logo. Very nice. It almost feels like this is not an actual company or product, but a convincing retro design created by a designer today. I know Apricot was real, but something about it feels like it’s winking ironically, in a “what if this had taken off” kind of way. Imagine the pixel art Apricot on the back of a 2006 smartphone in that alternate universe. (Steve Jobs never went back to Apple and instead Apricot teamed up with ARM and Psion to create the Jesus Phone, turning Britain into the new Silicon Valley…)
rasz 3y ago
Release date October 1985 and it already had 1.44MB HD floppy :o
- NikkiA 3y ago
  They were 720k not 1.44MB. I don't think apricot released anything with a 1.44MB before they gave up on the PC market.
  - rasz 3y ago
    damn marketing! >Twin 720K MicroFloppy drives offer 1.44 megabytes of mass storage but I cant see second FDD on the picture, not a spot for one.
    - iam-TJ 3y ago
      There were/are two front slots; the permutations were: 720KB FDD, blank 720KB FDD, 720KB FDD 720KB FDD, 20MB HDD (I also seem to recall seeing (blank,blank) for "dumb terminals" when Xenix and line cards were in the Xenix server. Could have up to 16 terminals hanging off the back when using Xenix.
      - NikkiA 3y ago
        Those would be the 'Xen-WS' version, I once used one on a network in the mid 80s (85 or 86, couldn't say which with certainty, but it was while I was in secondary school*), the 'workstation' itself was still running DOS/Win1.x but all storage was on the network. I don't know if it was net booted or had DOS etc in ROM on the network card. * Although the network and classes were at the local college as some kind of crossover access, I recall another of the classes involved their lab of Apple IIe that had this weird gated access to the internet for email.
  - NikkiA 3y ago
    Replying to self to correct myself. The Qi series (microchannel based 386 and 486, the very last apricot PCs) had 1.44MB floppies

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

dfawcus 3y ago

Yeah - and I used one of them, and the Windows version on it. About all it got used for under windows were Reversi, and Write. It also came with WordStar 2000, which was a bit weird... The one I had access to had the small green screen monitor, originally from the Apricot PC (Xi?).

MissTake 3y ago
That was my first “work” computer. Came with MS-DOS 2.11 IIRC. Spent many an happy hour with it putting together various DB applications using Delta IV - a hierarchical database system.