Lamenting the loss of a Business/IT Icon- August 30, 2002 I always hate the feeling you get in your gut when you hear of the passing of a friend, or a distant family member from your recent past. Someone you knew well, perhaps hung around with for a bit of your life, relied on for certain things important to you, but maybe not as close as your nuclear family. As part of our now in production article "Life with only a Notebook, PC or Mac?" I was talking with the Houston based Hewlett-Packard Public Relations Manager , Kris Dahl. Houston Texas is now the combined hub for all of HP's Notebook marketing and support, moving control from Palo Alto, California. We were talking about which Notebooks from Compaq and Hewlett-Packards product lines "The New HP" was going to submit for the article. I also pressed in typical journalist's fashion for some insight on the future fate of the now combined two distinctly different portable computer product lines. I had assumed that under the HP brand they would be submitting a premium OmniBook for the "high end" desktop replacement portable.				That was when the sad news stuck my unsuspecting ears and wrenched my gut, HP will be dropping the OmniBook this year (it's actually already gone if you try to find one) and Compaq's Evo line will replace it as the Business/IT level or premium portable, (I'm paraphrasing a bit here). From what I understand, only the Pavilion brand will remain as the masthead for the HP side of the line. ì. . in 1993 HP introduced the 3-pound HP OmniBook 300; "a super portable personal computer with enough battery power to last during a flight . . î I was shocked, I was sad and I felt the loss of a dear friend because I've had a few OmniBooks and not one was a stinker. Along with my ever faithful Mac G3 Pismo PowerBook and a brand new 14" iBook, I also use a very recent model OmniBook XE3-GF, which was also sold as the Pavilion N5445. It has a powerhouse PIII at 1.06 GHz, 512 MB of PC 133 RAM, Firewire, Combo drive and a very nice 15" TFT display. It can even play DVD's on at TV without having to turn the Notebook on! It's a tough Wintel box impervious to damage and that's why I choose it instead of buying a new Mac G4 Titanium which is prone to chipping or flaking paint and broken display hinges. After 9 months of ownership and LOTS of travel abuse, there is not a single chip or scratch on it. OmniBook 300 Back in 1993 HP introduced the 3-pound HP OmniBook 300; "a super portable personal computer with enough battery power to last during a flight across the United States", was how HP billed this first ultra compact computer. next
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