WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.540 I want you to just picture yourself walking through 00:00:03.540 --> 00:00:06.820 a really busy airport terminal. Okay, I'm picturing 00:00:06.820 --> 00:00:11.140 it. Right, but it's the early 1980s and you are 00:00:11.140 --> 00:00:13.619 rushing to catch a flight and you are lugging 00:00:13.619 --> 00:00:18.260 this massive painted aluminum box by a heavy 00:00:18.260 --> 00:00:22.030 -duty handle. oh man yeah and it weighs 29 pound 00:00:22.030 --> 00:00:24.870 that is that's a workout it really is yeah it's 00:00:24.870 --> 00:00:26.890 awkwardly bumping against your leg with like 00:00:26.890 --> 00:00:29.089 every single step it is almost certainly leaving 00:00:29.089 --> 00:00:31.390 this massive bruise on your knee right and if 00:00:31.390 --> 00:00:34.070 anyone stops and asks you what on earth you're 00:00:34.070 --> 00:00:36.170 carrying you look them dead in the eye without 00:00:36.170 --> 00:00:38.710 a hint of irony and you say oh this It's my portable 00:00:38.710 --> 00:00:41.009 computer. It really, um, it really stretches 00:00:41.009 --> 00:00:43.310 the modern definition of the word portable, doesn't 00:00:43.310 --> 00:00:45.210 it? It completely shatters it. Because today, 00:00:45.469 --> 00:00:47.869 I mean, we get profoundly annoyed if our laptop 00:00:47.869 --> 00:00:50.850 weighs more than, like, three pounds, right? 00:00:50.990 --> 00:00:53.149 Or if the charger's just a little too bulky. 00:00:53.229 --> 00:00:55.909 Oh, absolutely. But back in 1982, the mere fact 00:00:55.909 --> 00:00:58.070 that you could physically move a computer from 00:00:58.070 --> 00:01:00.369 one office to another without having to literally 00:01:00.369 --> 00:01:02.829 hire a moving van was considered an absolute 00:01:02.829 --> 00:01:05.760 technological marvel. It was a total game changer. 00:01:06.480 --> 00:01:09.379 And that heavy, bruise -inducing metal box is 00:01:09.379 --> 00:01:11.819 exactly what we are exploring in today's Deep 00:01:11.819 --> 00:01:14.540 Dive. Yes, it is. We are pulling from this massive, 00:01:15.159 --> 00:01:18.799 incredibly detailed Wikipedia archive that chronicles 00:01:18.799 --> 00:01:21.379 the history of the Kaypro Corporation. A truly 00:01:21.379 --> 00:01:24.500 wild history. So wild. And what we really want 00:01:24.500 --> 00:01:26.989 to do today is explore how a niche company one 00:01:26.989 --> 00:01:29.769 that spent decades making industrial test equipment, 00:01:30.469 --> 00:01:32.769 accidentally built one of the world's most popular 00:01:32.769 --> 00:01:35.549 early personal computers. By accident. Literally. 00:01:36.170 --> 00:01:37.590 We're going to look at how giving away their 00:01:37.590 --> 00:01:40.310 product for free was their ultimate secret weapon, 00:01:40.969 --> 00:01:44.810 and finally, how their greatest strength became 00:01:44.810 --> 00:01:47.459 the exact thing that destroyed them. It's just 00:01:47.459 --> 00:01:49.959 such a rich narrative. I mean, whether you are 00:01:49.959 --> 00:01:52.200 a dedicated tech historian or you're just, you 00:01:52.200 --> 00:01:54.540 know, insanely curious about how massive industries 00:01:54.540 --> 00:01:57.519 rise and fall, this story is a masterclass. For 00:01:57.519 --> 00:02:00.040 sure. It touches on market disruption, the brilliance 00:02:00.040 --> 00:02:02.439 of truly understanding consumer friction, and, 00:02:02.439 --> 00:02:04.599 well, the fatal dangers of ignoring massive shifts 00:02:04.599 --> 00:02:06.859 in your industry. Yeah, and I think to really 00:02:06.859 --> 00:02:08.699 understand how they pulled this off, we have 00:02:08.699 --> 00:02:12.310 to look at the founder, Andrew Kay. Okay, let's 00:02:12.310 --> 00:02:14.830 unpack this guy's mindset because it is entirely 00:02:14.830 --> 00:02:17.650 foundational to what Capro actually became. Totally. 00:02:17.949 --> 00:02:22.150 So in 1952, Andrew Kay invented the digital voltmeter. 00:02:22.370 --> 00:02:25.039 Which is a huge deal on its own. Right. and he 00:02:25.039 --> 00:02:27.539 founded a company called Nonlinear Systems, or 00:02:27.539 --> 00:02:30.900 NLS, and for decades, they just made electronic 00:02:30.900 --> 00:02:33.240 test equipment. Yeah, they were building rugged, 00:02:33.699 --> 00:02:36.680 serious instruments, you know, multimeters, oscilloscopes, 00:02:36.780 --> 00:02:40.580 things designed to survive on gritty factory 00:02:40.580 --> 00:02:43.580 production lines and in... like really busy laboratories. 00:02:43.860 --> 00:02:46.780 But then in 1981, they decided to completely 00:02:46.780 --> 00:02:49.000 pivot. Right. They looked at the market and just 00:02:49.000 --> 00:02:50.919 decided they wanted to build a personal computer 00:02:50.919 --> 00:02:53.180 to compete with a machine called the Osborne 00:02:53.180 --> 00:02:55.419 One. Right. And for context, the Osborne One 00:02:55.419 --> 00:02:58.599 was another early luggable computer that had 00:02:58.599 --> 00:03:01.099 just hit the market. And it was generating massive 00:03:01.099 --> 00:03:04.000 buzz. Huge buzz. So NLS organized Capra as a 00:03:04.000 --> 00:03:05.879 daughter company, and they moved with just incredible 00:03:05.879 --> 00:03:10.039 speed. By the April 1982 West Coast Computer 00:03:10.039 --> 00:03:13.000 Fair, they had completely bypass their old test 00:03:13.000 --> 00:03:15.020 equipment distributors. They just skipped them. 00:03:15.080 --> 00:03:17.379 Skipped them entirely. They just showed up to 00:03:17.379 --> 00:03:20.000 the convention floor, and almost overnight they 00:03:20.000 --> 00:03:22.939 were taking in $50 ,000 in pre -orders every 00:03:22.939 --> 00:03:25.099 single day. Wait, hold on. Let me just... Pause 00:03:25.099 --> 00:03:27.300 right there because that is a completely wild 00:03:27.300 --> 00:03:29.939 pivot. It really is. I mean, imagine a company 00:03:29.939 --> 00:03:33.159 that specializes in building heavy duty industrial 00:03:33.159 --> 00:03:36.120 tractors suddenly deciding, you know what, we're 00:03:36.120 --> 00:03:38.020 going to build a consumer sports car. That's 00:03:38.020 --> 00:03:40.120 a great way to put it. And not only do they build 00:03:40.120 --> 00:03:42.560 it, but they immediately start outselling established 00:03:42.560 --> 00:03:44.939 sports car brands. It frankly shouldn't work. 00:03:45.159 --> 00:03:47.259 No, it shouldn't. If I want a consumer computer 00:03:47.259 --> 00:03:51.620 for my house or my small business, the last thing 00:03:51.620 --> 00:03:54.889 I want is something built like a voltmeter. So 00:03:54.889 --> 00:03:58.270 why didn't consumers reject this heavy industrial 00:03:58.270 --> 00:04:00.409 thing immediately? Well, because you have to 00:04:00.409 --> 00:04:02.650 look at what the consumer tech landscape was 00:04:02.650 --> 00:04:06.189 actually like at that exact moment in time. Early 00:04:06.189 --> 00:04:09.250 personal computers were, they were incredibly 00:04:09.250 --> 00:04:12.490 fragile. Oh, like temperamental. Extremely temperamental. 00:04:12.889 --> 00:04:16.209 They were delicate machines. prone to overheating 00:04:16.209 --> 00:04:19.569 and just breaking down. So when K Pro brought 00:04:19.569 --> 00:04:22.230 their industrial test equipment DNA into the 00:04:22.230 --> 00:04:24.790 consumer market, they weren't building a sleek 00:04:24.790 --> 00:04:28.149 sports car. They were building a tank. And consumers, 00:04:28.329 --> 00:04:30.410 who were frankly terrified of breaking their 00:04:30.410 --> 00:04:33.490 expensive new toys, actually wanted a tank. Ah, 00:04:33.490 --> 00:04:35.790 I see. So the ruggedness was a feature, not a 00:04:35.790 --> 00:04:39.509 bug. Exactly. It gave the K Pro its unique identity. 00:04:39.930 --> 00:04:42.829 It wasn't a delicate toy. It was built like laboratory 00:04:42.829 --> 00:04:45.810 equipment. Right. For example, all the integrated 00:04:45.810 --> 00:04:47.790 circuit chips on the main board of the early 00:04:47.790 --> 00:04:50.990 K -Pros were installed in physical sockets. OK, 00:04:51.029 --> 00:04:53.329 so they weren't soldered directly to the GreenLogic 00:04:53.329 --> 00:04:55.790 board like almost everything is today. Precisely. 00:04:55.930 --> 00:04:58.230 Meaning, you didn't have to break out a hot soldering 00:04:58.230 --> 00:05:00.930 iron and melt metal just to fix a broken component. 00:05:01.089 --> 00:05:03.790 Right, which was huge. This socketed design made 00:05:03.790 --> 00:05:06.490 the machine an absolute dream for hobbyists and 00:05:06.490 --> 00:05:08.810 practical business owners alike. Because you 00:05:08.810 --> 00:05:11.879 could actually fix it. Exactly. If a memory chip 00:05:11.879 --> 00:05:14.579 failed, the whole computer wasn't just garbage. 00:05:15.019 --> 00:05:17.540 You could literally take a small tool... pop 00:05:17.540 --> 00:05:19.660 the bad chip out of its socket, and just push 00:05:19.660 --> 00:05:23.240 a new $3 chip right back in. Wow. You could repair 00:05:23.240 --> 00:05:25.579 it yourself. It felt empowering, you know. It 00:05:25.579 --> 00:05:28.839 felt indestructible. It was a rugged, serious, 00:05:29.399 --> 00:05:31.420 user -serviceable machine wrapped in a heavy 00:05:31.420 --> 00:05:34.100 -gauge aluminum case. It was so rugged, in fact, 00:05:34.199 --> 00:05:36.480 that the tech press at the time actually mocked 00:05:36.480 --> 00:05:38.519 them for it. Oh, yeah, they did. One computing 00:05:38.519 --> 00:05:41.620 magazine famously described K Pro as producing 00:05:41.620 --> 00:05:44.439 computers packaged in tin cans. Tin cans. Yeah. 00:05:44.879 --> 00:05:47.480 But the joke was really on the critics, because 00:05:47.480 --> 00:05:50.579 Capro managed to fix almost every single mechanical 00:05:50.579 --> 00:05:53.120 flaw of their main competitor, the Osborne one. 00:05:53.199 --> 00:05:55.120 And let's be honest, the Osborne had some glaring 00:05:55.120 --> 00:05:57.779 flaws. It really did. Like, the Osborne had this 00:05:57.779 --> 00:06:00.860 tiny, squint -inducing 5 -inch screen that you 00:06:00.860 --> 00:06:03.079 practically needed a magnifying glass to read. 00:06:03.120 --> 00:06:06.180 It was awful. But the Capro II, which was their 00:06:06.180 --> 00:06:09.560 first major commercial release, boasted a massive 00:06:09.560 --> 00:06:13.079 9 -inch green monochrome CRT screen. Huge difference. 00:06:13.399 --> 00:06:16.819 Oh, massive. And it had a keyboard that physically 00:06:16.819 --> 00:06:19.220 snapped right onto the front to protect the screen 00:06:19.220 --> 00:06:21.680 and the two floppy disk drives during transit. 00:06:22.019 --> 00:06:25.519 It was just a brilliant piece of functional industrial 00:06:25.519 --> 00:06:27.920 design. It was. And we absolutely have to talk 00:06:27.920 --> 00:06:29.699 about the pricing strategy because it disrupted 00:06:29.699 --> 00:06:32.279 everything. Yes, the pricing was crazy. They 00:06:32.279 --> 00:06:34.240 priced the K Pro the second originally around 00:06:34.240 --> 00:06:36.279 seventeen hundred ninety five dollars, but it 00:06:36.279 --> 00:06:38.660 was heavily marketed with this incredibly catchy 00:06:38.660 --> 00:06:41.379 slogan. The five hundred and ninety five dollar 00:06:41.379 --> 00:06:45.399 computer that sells for $1 ,595. Which on the 00:06:45.399 --> 00:06:47.019 surface is quite the brain teaser. I mean, it 00:06:47.019 --> 00:06:48.319 sounds like they're just stating the obvious, 00:06:48.339 --> 00:06:50.540 right? It does. But the subtext of that slogan 00:06:50.540 --> 00:06:54.519 was a literal shot across the bow of the entire 00:06:54.519 --> 00:06:56.620 industry. How so? What they meant was that when 00:06:56.620 --> 00:06:59.060 you bought a Kaypro, there were no hidden costs. 00:06:59.459 --> 00:07:01.319 You weren't just buying the bare hardware and 00:07:01.319 --> 00:07:03.339 then realizing, oh, wait, I need to spend another 00:07:03.339 --> 00:07:05.660 fortune to actually make it useful. Right. You 00:07:05.660 --> 00:07:08.550 were getting unbelievable value because of what 00:07:08.550 --> 00:07:11.189 came bundled with the machine out of the box. 00:07:11.670 --> 00:07:14.689 Yes. When you look at the economics, here's where 00:07:14.689 --> 00:07:17.790 it gets really interesting. Because if you break 00:07:17.790 --> 00:07:20.810 down the cost of what was in that box, I would 00:07:20.810 --> 00:07:23.009 argue that K Pro wasn't actually selling hardware 00:07:23.009 --> 00:07:25.649 at all. That's a strong claim. But it's true. 00:07:25.930 --> 00:07:28.250 They fundamentally invented the modern software 00:07:28.250 --> 00:07:30.790 bundle. How do you mean? Well, back then, buying 00:07:30.790 --> 00:07:33.110 a computer meant buying a blank slate. But when 00:07:33.110 --> 00:07:36.230 you bought a K Pro Cerig, It came loaded with 00:07:36.230 --> 00:07:39.110 the CPM operating system, and it didn't stop 00:07:39.110 --> 00:07:41.870 there. Right, they packed it full. Exactly. It 00:07:41.870 --> 00:07:44.370 included WordStar, which was the premier word 00:07:44.370 --> 00:07:47.250 processor of the era. It included the Supercalc 00:07:47.250 --> 00:07:49.990 spreadsheet program, Perfect Writer, and the 00:07:49.990 --> 00:07:52.589 Dbase2 relational database. That is heavy -hitting 00:07:52.589 --> 00:07:54.889 software. It really was. It even came with ASCII 00:07:54.889 --> 00:07:57.649 -based games. There was Ketchum, which was basically 00:07:57.649 --> 00:08:00.790 a text -based Pac -Man, Aliens, which is a Space 00:08:00.790 --> 00:08:04.310 Invaders clone, and Ladder, which was like Donkey 00:08:04.310 --> 00:08:06.240 Kong. And if you went to a software store in 00:08:06.240 --> 00:08:08.579 1982 and bought all those programs separately, 00:08:08.899 --> 00:08:11.199 like buying the physical boxes and the massive 00:08:11.199 --> 00:08:14.300 phone book size manuals, the retail value of 00:08:14.300 --> 00:08:16.759 that software was well over a thousand dollars. 00:08:17.459 --> 00:08:20.199 Exactly. So my pushback against the tin can critics 00:08:20.199 --> 00:08:23.500 of the era is this. K Pro was essentially giving 00:08:23.500 --> 00:08:26.699 you $1 ,000 worth of elite business software. 00:08:27.220 --> 00:08:29.500 And for a few hundred bucks more, they threw 00:08:29.500 --> 00:08:32.080 in an indestructible metal box to run it on. 00:08:32.200 --> 00:08:34.639 The hardware was practically a free gift with 00:08:34.639 --> 00:08:37.519 purchase. What's fascinating here is how this 00:08:37.519 --> 00:08:40.399 specific strategy created what we now call the 00:08:40.399 --> 00:08:43.320 turnkey revolution. Turnkey, right. Because before 00:08:43.320 --> 00:08:46.279 the K Pro, computers were largely reserved for 00:08:46.279 --> 00:08:49.519 hackers, deep hobbyists, and engineers. You had 00:08:49.519 --> 00:08:51.559 to know how to piece components together. You 00:08:51.559 --> 00:08:54.480 had to buy your software separately. And then 00:08:54.480 --> 00:08:56.360 you had to actually get it to work together. 00:08:56.460 --> 00:08:59.059 Exactly. You had to spend hours configuring terminal 00:08:59.059 --> 00:09:01.299 codes just to get your word processor to display 00:09:01.299 --> 00:09:03.480 properly on your specific screen. It was full 00:09:03.480 --> 00:09:06.019 of friction. It sounds exhausting. It was, but 00:09:06.019 --> 00:09:08.360 K Pro bypassed all of that friction. They didn't 00:09:08.360 --> 00:09:10.299 just build a computer, they built an appliance. 00:09:10.379 --> 00:09:13.799 An appliance. Like a toaster. Exactly like a 00:09:13.799 --> 00:09:15.860 toaster. You didn't need a computer science degree 00:09:15.860 --> 00:09:19.100 to use it. A small business CEO could literally 00:09:19.100 --> 00:09:21.539 take this heavy machine out of the box, turn 00:09:21.539 --> 00:09:25.000 the key, or flip the switch and immediately start 00:09:25.000 --> 00:09:27.600 writing form letters to clients using PerfectWriter. 00:09:28.110 --> 00:09:31.549 or manage their entire warehouse inventory with 00:09:31.549 --> 00:09:34.649 DBase 2. Because they even made it seamless to 00:09:34.649 --> 00:09:37.470 move data between those different programs using 00:09:37.470 --> 00:09:39.409 comma delimited files, which is exactly what 00:09:39.409 --> 00:09:42.950 we call CSV files today. They built an entire 00:09:42.950 --> 00:09:46.429 integrated office suite right into the box. It's 00:09:46.429 --> 00:09:48.149 no wonder they were selling more than 10 ,000 00:09:48.149 --> 00:09:51.750 units a month by mid -1983. They became the fifth 00:09:51.750 --> 00:09:54.740 largest computer maker in the entire world. simply 00:09:54.740 --> 00:09:56.659 by removing the friction for regular people. 00:09:57.080 --> 00:10:00.080 And that extreme accessibility spawned an incredible, 00:10:00.259 --> 00:10:02.500 devoted, cult -like following. Oh, the fandom 00:10:02.500 --> 00:10:05.340 was wild. It was. They were using CTM, which 00:10:05.340 --> 00:10:07.419 at the time was the absolute standard operating 00:10:07.419 --> 00:10:09.259 system for 8 -bit computers. That meant there 00:10:09.259 --> 00:10:11.080 were thousands of applications available for 00:10:11.080 --> 00:10:13.419 it. But the K Pro hardware itself, while rugged, 00:10:13.840 --> 00:10:15.879 was actually quite limited in terms of expansion. 00:10:16.000 --> 00:10:18.200 Oh, really? Yeah. You couldn't just open it up 00:10:18.200 --> 00:10:21.100 and easily slot in new graphics cards or expansion 00:10:21.100 --> 00:10:24.070 boards. So the hobbyists couldn't... endlessly 00:10:24.070 --> 00:10:26.210 tinker with the internal hardware like they could 00:10:26.210 --> 00:10:28.590 with other machines. Right. So instead of bonding 00:10:28.590 --> 00:10:31.909 over tweaking the hardware, this massive community 00:10:31.909 --> 00:10:35.450 bonded over the shared experience of just using 00:10:35.450 --> 00:10:38.509 this reliable boxy machine to get work done. 00:10:38.850 --> 00:10:42.450 And what a massive community it was. Huge hobbyist 00:10:42.450 --> 00:10:44.809 user groups popped up all over the United States. 00:10:45.429 --> 00:10:48.070 And Capri was so incredibly smart about fostering 00:10:48.070 --> 00:10:49.990 this. They really leaned into it. They didn't 00:10:49.990 --> 00:10:51.950 ignore the hobbyists. They worked directly with 00:10:51.950 --> 00:10:55.100 them. If a local Kaypro corporate salesman was 00:10:55.100 --> 00:10:57.159 traveling through a town, he would make it a 00:10:57.159 --> 00:10:59.080 point to drop by the local user group meeting 00:10:59.080 --> 00:11:01.940 just to offer support and answer questions. That's 00:11:01.940 --> 00:11:03.679 unheard of today. It's completely unheard of. 00:11:03.759 --> 00:11:06.620 It felt deeply personal to the users. Kaypro 00:11:06.620 --> 00:11:09.980 even published and subsidized a monthly 72 -page 00:11:09.980 --> 00:11:12.899 full -color glossy magazine called Profiles, 00:11:13.299 --> 00:11:15.519 which had huge legitimate sci -fi writers like 00:11:15.519 --> 00:11:17.679 David Gerald and Robert J. Sawyer writing columns 00:11:17.679 --> 00:11:19.860 for it. And it wasn't just corporate -sponsored 00:11:19.860 --> 00:11:22.139 media, either. There was a fiercely independent 00:11:22.139 --> 00:11:25.379 magazine based out of Bend, Oregon, called Micro 00:11:25.379 --> 00:11:28.059 Cornucopia, that covered K -Pro extensively, 00:11:28.779 --> 00:11:30.659 publishing hardware hacks and software tips. 00:11:31.179 --> 00:11:33.179 Right. Owning a K -Pro wasn't just owning a product. 00:11:33.360 --> 00:11:35.960 It became a core identity. And that identity 00:11:35.960 --> 00:11:39.679 reached all the way across the globe. One of 00:11:39.679 --> 00:11:42.220 the most striking, almost cinematic visuals in 00:11:42.220 --> 00:11:44.360 the source material we reviewed is about the 00:11:44.360 --> 00:11:46.779 legendary science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke. 00:11:46.980 --> 00:11:49.700 Oh, this story is amazing. It's so good. Picture 00:11:49.700 --> 00:11:53.100 this. He is sitting on a balcony near a beach 00:11:53.100 --> 00:11:56.259 in Sri Lanka, as far away from the buzz of Silicon 00:11:56.259 --> 00:11:59.980 Valley as you can possibly get. It's 1982. He 00:11:59.980 --> 00:12:03.659 is using a 29 -pound metal K Pro II and a slow 00:12:03.659 --> 00:12:06.480 acoustic modem to write the novel, 2010. Odyssey 00:12:06.480 --> 00:12:08.460 2. And for the listener who might not know, an 00:12:08.460 --> 00:12:10.360 acoustic modem meant you literally had to take 00:12:10.360 --> 00:12:12.919 the physical handset of a telephone and shove 00:12:12.919 --> 00:12:15.139 it into two rubber suction cups on the modem. 00:12:15.179 --> 00:12:17.559 Which is just so funny to picture. It is. The 00:12:17.559 --> 00:12:20.220 machine would then screech audio tones into the 00:12:20.220 --> 00:12:23.559 phone mouthpiece to send data over standard international 00:12:23.559 --> 00:12:27.539 phone lines. Which is mind blowing. He was collaboratively 00:12:27.539 --> 00:12:31.759 editing a sequel to 2001, a space odyssey with 00:12:31.759 --> 00:12:34.440 editors back in the United States sending chapters 00:12:34.440 --> 00:12:38.259 over screeching phone lines from a beach in Sri 00:12:38.259 --> 00:12:41.620 Lanka. Incredible. This ugly machine, this heavy 00:12:41.620 --> 00:12:45.200 tin can, literally powered science fiction history. 00:12:45.320 --> 00:12:48.299 It is a beautiful image and it completely validates 00:12:48.299 --> 00:12:50.320 their industrial design. If you are living in 00:12:50.320 --> 00:12:54.240 the humidity and heat of Sri Lanka in 1982, you 00:12:54.240 --> 00:12:56.860 do not want a fragile, delicate computer. You 00:12:56.860 --> 00:12:59.500 want a Kaypro because it won't die on you. Exactly. 00:12:59.659 --> 00:13:01.799 But as the company rapidly grew, their product 00:13:01.799 --> 00:13:04.970 line became, well, incredibly chaotic. Oh, the 00:13:04.970 --> 00:13:07.110 naming conventions alone are an absolute nightmare. 00:13:07.230 --> 00:13:09.330 So confusing. They released the K Pro 2nd, then 00:13:09.330 --> 00:13:11.350 they released the K Pro 3, spelled with Roman 00:13:11.350 --> 00:13:13.350 numerals, and then a year later they released 00:13:13.350 --> 00:13:16.210 the K Pro 4 with the standard Arabic number 4, 00:13:16.529 --> 00:13:18.529 which was a completely different machine. Naturally. 00:13:18.669 --> 00:13:21.789 Then came the K Pro 10, which was genuinely revolutionary 00:13:21.789 --> 00:13:23.830 because it was one of the first personal computers 00:13:23.830 --> 00:13:26.929 to come standard with a massive 10 megabyte internal 00:13:26.929 --> 00:13:29.789 hard drive. A huge deal at the time. But my absolute 00:13:29.789 --> 00:13:32.769 favorite. Purely for the sheer baffling absurdity 00:13:32.769 --> 00:13:37.590 of its design is the K Pro Roby. Ah yes, the 00:13:37.590 --> 00:13:40.690 infamous Roby. It was their only desktop machine 00:13:40.690 --> 00:13:43.029 that ran CPM, so it wasn't a portable luggable. 00:13:43.350 --> 00:13:45.429 It was meant to stay on your desk. Yeah. It was 00:13:45.429 --> 00:13:48.450 jet black, the floppy drives were mounted weirdly 00:13:48.450 --> 00:13:51.090 above the screen, and the whole front panel angled 00:13:51.090 --> 00:13:53.730 upward. It looks so strange. People immediately 00:13:53.730 --> 00:13:56.629 nicknamed it... Darth Vader's lunchbox. It even 00:13:56.629 --> 00:13:59.490 had a cameo on the TV show Moonlighting as Bruce 00:13:59.490 --> 00:14:02.590 Willis' computer. But the Roby was notorious 00:14:02.590 --> 00:14:05.549 for a very serious mechanical flaw that goes 00:14:05.549 --> 00:14:08.210 back to the how and why of its design. Oh right, 00:14:08.350 --> 00:14:10.990 the drives. Yeah, it used these brand new high 00:14:10.990 --> 00:14:13.289 -density floppy drives, but because the drives 00:14:13.289 --> 00:14:15.590 were mounted at that awkward upward angle in 00:14:15.590 --> 00:14:17.610 that helmet -shaped case, the physical drive 00:14:17.610 --> 00:14:20.279 heads applied far too much friction. Oh no. The 00:14:20.279 --> 00:14:22.559 Robi would literally scrape the magnetic media 00:14:22.559 --> 00:14:24.919 right off the plastic disk substrate, permanently 00:14:24.919 --> 00:14:27.600 destroying your data. It was a mechanical disaster. 00:14:27.840 --> 00:14:29.740 A computer that physically eats your work is 00:14:29.740 --> 00:14:33.299 a tough sell. Exactly. But here is the wild part. 00:14:33.840 --> 00:14:37.379 Even with missteps like the Robi, the core user 00:14:37.379 --> 00:14:40.460 base remained fiercely loyal to K Pro and to 00:14:40.460 --> 00:14:43.059 the CPM operating system. Looking at this intense 00:14:43.059 --> 00:14:45.379 fandom, this raises an important question about 00:14:45.379 --> 00:14:48.279 the double -edged sword of brand loyalty. Because 00:14:48.279 --> 00:14:50.779 while Capra was busy loving their original customers, 00:14:51.259 --> 00:14:54.120 and those customers were busy loving CPM, the 00:14:54.120 --> 00:14:56.539 rest of the computer industry was absolutely 00:14:56.539 --> 00:14:59.019 not sitting still. No, things were moving fast. 00:14:59.220 --> 00:15:01.019 IBM had entered the personal computer market 00:15:01.019 --> 00:15:03.799 with a massive splash and a brand new operating 00:15:03.799 --> 00:15:06.940 system called MS -DOS was rapidly becoming the 00:15:06.940 --> 00:15:09.950 new global standard. The technological ground 00:15:09.950 --> 00:15:12.210 was shifting violently beneath Capro's feet. 00:15:12.409 --> 00:15:14.590 This raises an important question. I mean, that 00:15:14.590 --> 00:15:17.490 intense mutual loyalty created a fatal echo chamber. 00:15:17.649 --> 00:15:19.870 Think of operating systems like railroad tracks. 00:15:19.970 --> 00:15:22.210 OK, tracks. For years, Capra had been building 00:15:22.210 --> 00:15:24.570 indestructible, highly reliable trains that ran 00:15:24.570 --> 00:15:27.690 on CPM narrow gauge tracks. But suddenly, IBM 00:15:27.690 --> 00:15:29.950 and MS -DOS came along and started laying down 00:15:29.950 --> 00:15:32.269 standard gauge tracks across the entire globe. 00:15:32.629 --> 00:15:34.190 Software developers started building their new 00:15:34.190 --> 00:15:36.730 programs exclusively for the MS -DOS tracks. 00:15:37.049 --> 00:15:38.950 Because it doesn't matter how strong or beautiful 00:15:38.950 --> 00:15:41.789 your train is if its wheels physically do not 00:15:41.789 --> 00:15:43.830 fit the tracks the rest of the world is using. 00:15:44.169 --> 00:15:46.710 Precisely. While the corporate world was demanding 00:15:46.710 --> 00:15:50.730 IBM PC compatibility, K Pro stubbornly stuck 00:15:50.730 --> 00:15:54.309 to their CPM tracks. They genuinely believed 00:15:54.309 --> 00:15:56.850 their rugged hardware and incredible bundled 00:15:56.850 --> 00:15:58.889 software would be enough to keep people around. 00:15:59.450 --> 00:16:02.450 But it wasn't. And this is where a rival company 00:16:02.450 --> 00:16:06.129 called Compaq swoops in and completely steals 00:16:06.129 --> 00:16:08.990 their crown. Compaq was ruthless here. They really 00:16:08.990 --> 00:16:11.269 were. Compaq looked closely at what Capra was 00:16:11.269 --> 00:16:13.490 doing with the all -in -one portable design, 00:16:13.789 --> 00:16:16.440 and they basically copied the form factor. But 00:16:16.440 --> 00:16:19.440 Compaq made two critical changes. First, their 00:16:19.440 --> 00:16:21.259 case was made of plastic with an inner metal 00:16:21.259 --> 00:16:23.779 shield, so it was actually slightly larger and 00:16:23.779 --> 00:16:26.480 far less durable than the aluminum Capro. But 00:16:26.480 --> 00:16:29.019 second, and this is the absolute kill shot, Compaq 00:16:29.019 --> 00:16:32.039 had legally reverse engineered the IBM BIOS. 00:16:32.039 --> 00:16:34.960 That was huge. Meaning their portable ran MS 00:16:34.960 --> 00:16:39.149 -DOS with near 100 % IBM PC compatibility. That 00:16:39.149 --> 00:16:41.950 compatibility was everything. Business users 00:16:41.950 --> 00:16:45.330 wanted to run Lotus 123, which was the killer 00:16:45.330 --> 00:16:47.830 spreadsheet app of the decade, and they wanted 00:16:47.830 --> 00:16:50.889 to run Microsoft Flight Simulator. Classic. Those 00:16:50.889 --> 00:16:53.629 programs were designed strictly for the IBM PC. 00:16:54.190 --> 00:16:56.490 Compaq gave them a portable way to do exactly 00:16:56.490 --> 00:16:59.669 that. KPro couldn't. Looking at Andrew K and 00:16:59.669 --> 00:17:02.070 his leadership team, so what does this all mean? 00:17:02.629 --> 00:17:05.369 Were they just arrogant? Did they genuinely think 00:17:05.369 --> 00:17:07.890 they knew better than the entire market? Or were 00:17:07.890 --> 00:17:10.450 they just paralyzed by the fear of abandoning 00:17:10.450 --> 00:17:13.329 the very hobbyists and CPM users who had made 00:17:13.329 --> 00:17:15.430 them the fifth largest computer maker in the 00:17:15.430 --> 00:17:17.950 world? It was likely a toxic mix of both, but 00:17:17.950 --> 00:17:20.069 primarily they suffered from corporate paralysis 00:17:20.069 --> 00:17:22.619 born out of a hardware -first mindset. The test 00:17:22.619 --> 00:17:25.140 equipment mindset. Exactly. Remember, they were 00:17:25.140 --> 00:17:27.480 born from test equipment. To them, the physical 00:17:27.480 --> 00:17:29.599 quality of the machine was the product. By the 00:17:29.599 --> 00:17:31.259 time they woke up and realized that the software 00:17:31.259 --> 00:17:33.960 ecosystem was the true battlefield, it was already 00:17:33.960 --> 00:17:36.380 too late. And when they finally did panic, their 00:17:36.380 --> 00:17:39.359 late pivots were just desperate. In late 1984, 00:17:39.359 --> 00:17:42.539 they released the K Pro 16, which finally ran 00:17:42.539 --> 00:17:45.799 MS -DOS. Too little, too late. Way too late. 00:17:46.059 --> 00:17:48.980 And they announced it with this incredibly begrudging 00:17:48.980 --> 00:17:51.769 tone. They literally said in the press, It's 00:17:51.769 --> 00:17:54.140 what our dealers ask for. You can hear the heavy 00:17:54.140 --> 00:17:56.019 sigh in that quote. It's like, fine, we'll make 00:17:56.019 --> 00:17:58.660 a DOS machine if you force us to. It was entirely 00:17:58.660 --> 00:18:01.960 reactive, and it led to incredibly rushed decisions. 00:18:02.319 --> 00:18:05.559 For example, they pushed out the K Pro 286i in 00:18:05.559 --> 00:18:09.579 1985. Now, technically, it was the first IBM 00:18:09.579 --> 00:18:12.420 PC -8T compatible clone to hit the market, which 00:18:12.420 --> 00:18:14.579 is an impressive engineering feat. Sure. But 00:18:14.579 --> 00:18:17.400 they rushed it out the door before IBM had actually 00:18:17.400 --> 00:18:20.400 released the PC DOS 3 .0 operating system. Wait, 00:18:20.400 --> 00:18:22.859 so they shipped a computer without an op - system. 00:18:23.119 --> 00:18:25.940 Yes. This brand new expensive computer shipped 00:18:25.940 --> 00:18:28.220 completely blank. The customer had to go buy 00:18:28.220 --> 00:18:30.740 the operating system separately from IBM months 00:18:30.740 --> 00:18:33.660 later. That is insane. It completely defeats 00:18:33.660 --> 00:18:36.019 their entire founding philosophy. They invented 00:18:36.019 --> 00:18:38.500 the turnkey, everything in the box appliance, 00:18:39.000 --> 00:18:40.779 and a few years later they're shipping empty 00:18:40.779 --> 00:18:42.599 metal boxes that do nothing when you turn them 00:18:42.599 --> 00:18:45.089 on. It was the complete collapse of their core 00:18:45.089 --> 00:18:47.589 identity. And we can't forget the Capro 2000. 00:18:48.710 --> 00:18:51.430 This was their desperate attempt at a modern 00:18:51.430 --> 00:18:54.839 clamshell battery powered laptop. But remember, 00:18:55.039 --> 00:18:56.960 this is an industrial company, so instead of 00:18:56.960 --> 00:18:59.339 using modern lightweight batteries, the Capro 00:18:59.339 --> 00:19:02.579 2000 ran on heavy lead acid batteries. Literally 00:19:02.579 --> 00:19:04.759 the exact same battery chemistry you used to 00:19:04.759 --> 00:19:07.920 start your car. Yep. It had a heavy brushed aluminum 00:19:07.920 --> 00:19:10.779 casing, and true to form, the community quickly 00:19:10.779 --> 00:19:13.700 nicknamed it Darth Vader's laptop. If we connect 00:19:13.700 --> 00:19:16.269 this to the bigger picture... It highlights the 00:19:16.269 --> 00:19:19.230 ultimate tragic irony of the entire K Pro story. 00:19:19.769 --> 00:19:22.789 The rugged, indestructible, heavy gauge aluminum 00:19:22.789 --> 00:19:26.789 K Pro lost to the flimsy plastic compact. It 00:19:26.789 --> 00:19:29.230 really did. Because in the technology sector, 00:19:29.730 --> 00:19:32.529 a software ecosystem is a much stronger armor 00:19:32.529 --> 00:19:34.930 than literal metal. You can build the toughest, 00:19:35.029 --> 00:19:37.190 most reliable machine on earth, but if it doesn't 00:19:37.190 --> 00:19:38.970 speak the language the rest of the world is speaking, 00:19:39.289 --> 00:19:41.549 it is nothing more than a 29 pound paperweight. 00:19:42.130 --> 00:19:44.150 That is the hard truth of the tech industry. 00:19:44.400 --> 00:19:46.720 And that realization came way too late to save 00:19:46.720 --> 00:19:49.160 them. Their sales dwindled steadily through the 00:19:49.160 --> 00:19:51.779 late 80s. They were forced to file for Chapter 00:19:51.779 --> 00:19:55.500 11 bankruptcy in March 1990. They tried desperate 00:19:55.500 --> 00:19:57.460 loot to restructure, but they couldn't pull out 00:19:57.460 --> 00:20:00.559 of the nosedive. They filed for Chapter 7 liquidation 00:20:00.559 --> 00:20:04.480 bankruptcy in June 1992. And by 1995, all of 00:20:04.480 --> 00:20:06.519 their remaining corporate assets were sold off 00:20:06.519 --> 00:20:09.640 for a mere two point seven million dollars. What 00:20:09.640 --> 00:20:13.140 a drop. There was a brief weird zombie revival 00:20:13.140 --> 00:20:16.400 in 1999 where a company called Premio tried to 00:20:16.400 --> 00:20:19.779 sell standard generic Windows PCs under the caper 00:20:19.779 --> 00:20:22.940 name online. But even that faded away by 2001. 00:20:23.549 --> 00:20:26.349 To wrap up this incredibly wild journey, we have 00:20:26.349 --> 00:20:28.910 seen Kaypro go from a niche company making digital 00:20:28.910 --> 00:20:31.890 voltmeters to inadvertently inventing the turnkey 00:20:31.890 --> 00:20:34.230 software bundle. We watched them become what 00:20:34.230 --> 00:20:36.190 sci -fi author Jerry Pornell affectionately called 00:20:36.190 --> 00:20:39.210 the VW and Chevrolet of the micro industry, rugged, 00:20:39.509 --> 00:20:41.950 reliable, and not very pretty. Perfect description. 00:20:42.410 --> 00:20:45.069 And finally, we watched them become a stark cautionary 00:20:45.069 --> 00:20:47.789 tale about the fatal dangers of failing to adapt 00:20:47.789 --> 00:20:49.970 to a shifting software landscape. So I want you 00:20:49.970 --> 00:20:52.109 to think about the tech tools and the software 00:20:52.109 --> 00:20:55.430 suites you use every single day. Are you using 00:20:55.430 --> 00:20:58.349 them because they are genuinely the best products 00:20:58.349 --> 00:21:01.130 available on the market? Or are you using them 00:21:01.130 --> 00:21:04.269 because you are locked into an ecosystem, a closed 00:21:04.269 --> 00:21:07.470 community, or a familiar interface that you simply 00:21:07.470 --> 00:21:09.730 refuse to leave, even as the rest of the world 00:21:09.730 --> 00:21:12.279 moves on without you? That is the perfect question 00:21:12.279 --> 00:21:13.880 to ask. And I'll leave you with a final thought 00:21:13.880 --> 00:21:17.380 to mull over. When we look at today's tech landscape, 00:21:17.680 --> 00:21:20.759 we are surrounded by incredibly sleek three -pound 00:21:20.759 --> 00:21:24.079 laptops and ultra -thin smartphones. Right. But 00:21:24.079 --> 00:21:26.400 they are completely sealed. They're glued shut. 00:21:26.700 --> 00:21:29.619 If a single memory chip fails or a battery dies, 00:21:29.940 --> 00:21:32.079 you often have to throw away the entire logic 00:21:32.079 --> 00:21:34.140 board or even the whole device. It just becomes 00:21:34.140 --> 00:21:36.799 e -waste. Which is so frustrating. It is. But 00:21:36.799 --> 00:21:40.460 back in 1982, Capro gave you a machine with socket 00:21:40.460 --> 00:21:42.599 of chips that you could pop out and replace yourself 00:21:42.599 --> 00:21:45.450 with standard tools. It makes you wonder... Did 00:21:45.450 --> 00:21:47.549 the tech industry learn the wrong lesson from 00:21:47.549 --> 00:21:49.769 the fall of Capro? Oh, interesting. We look at 00:21:49.769 --> 00:21:51.769 them as a failure because they couldn't adapt 00:21:51.769 --> 00:21:54.490 their software. But in our rush to abandon their 00:21:54.490 --> 00:21:57.029 heavy industrial hardware, did we accidentally 00:21:57.029 --> 00:22:00.890 trade away indestructible user repairable machines 00:22:00.890 --> 00:22:03.710 for a culture of disposable plastic that just 00:22:03.710 --> 00:22:06.309 ends up in a landfill every two years? Oh, that 00:22:06.309 --> 00:22:09.509 is a heavy question. Did we trade true ownership 00:22:09.509 --> 00:22:11.849 and repairability for a thinner screened bezel? 00:22:12.119 --> 00:22:14.079 Thank you so much for joining us on this deep 00:22:14.079 --> 00:22:16.859 dive into the fascinating rise and fall of K 00:22:16.859 --> 00:22:19.460 Pro. Next time you find yourself frustrated by 00:22:19.460 --> 00:22:22.180 a sleek 3 pound laptop, just be glad you aren't 00:22:22.180 --> 00:22:23.880 sprinting through an airport terminal with a 00:22:23.880 --> 00:22:26.440 29 pound aluminum box banging against your knee. 00:22:26.839 --> 00:22:28.099 We will see you on the next one.