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I miss Psion a lot. Has there been a UK computer hardware company since as innovative? IIRC, they did some odd things in their final years. I remember really w

by giobox 2y ago

I miss Psion a lot. Has there been a UK computer hardware company since as innovative? IIRC, they did some odd things in their final years. I remember really wanting a Psion 7/Psion netbook while living in the UK; there was some bizarre situation they would only sell them to B2B customers despite plenty of fans wanting one. I may be recalling facts a little off. My first ever program was written on the built in IDE on a Psion 3 (funny to think of portable computers that ship with the ability to write apps out of the box in todays cellphone market...)

yjftsjthsd-h 2y ago
> Has there been a UK computer hardware company since as innovative? Raspberry Pi?
- giobox 2y ago
  Maybe. Kinda a single idea that exploded there though (cheap SBCs). Psion had innovations across the board; they wrote their own OS (which later became Symbian on hundreds of millions of cellphones), wrote their own amazing little language for applications (OPL), the exceptional physical engineering of the battery hinges and sliding keyboards, incredible battery life on 2 AAs, full range of expansion cards/modems etc. The build quality on Psion 3/5 was incredible too, they remain some of the most nicely assembled consumer electronics I've seen. These devices even had pre-emptive multi-tasking support in their EPOC OS before the Mac did - the Mac didn't get this till OS X shipped. I like Raspberry Pi products, but for me, it's not close. Psion did all of the above by 1998... I don't think the UK has had an engineering leader in this space like it since.