You may not remember the name of Adam Osborne as easily as Steve Jobs, but there was a time when he was even more famous. If you read computer books, use a laptop, or rely on low cost software then you can thank Adam Osborne for each of those. Sadly, he’s more widely known for an imprudent business decision that still carries his name—the "Osborne Effect.”

He created the first commercially available portable computer, the Osborne 1. After announcing the development of his company's new advanced computers, buyers chose to wait for the new computers, thus killing the sales of the current Osborne 1, bankrupting the company.

But Adam Osborne deserves much more credit than simply being remembered for a business phenomenon that’s been named after him.

Osborne was born in Thailand in 1939 to British parents and spent much of his ch