[abcd_f]

Daaamn... Olivetti.

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An Olivetti PC was an ultimate dream to have in the late 80s and the early 90s for me, in impressionable age of adolescence, prone to the call of tinkering, hacking and programming. They were the brand, at least in Europe.

Such a nice memory :)

[linker3000]

I worked in IT support and engineering for a UK Olivetti dealer / distributor in the 1980s/90s. As such I had access to all sorts of Olivetti kit in various states of functionality. At one time, my home PC was an Olivetti M280 case with an M380 (386DX) motherboard and EGA display adapter. It had a colour monitor and the ANK 27-102 keyboard - it was a 'top end' hybrid for its time that I'd put together from several non-working machines..

I also had a 'faulty' Olivetti inkjet printer that was written off under warranty with a mysterious fault. I eventually managed to fix it by bending the metal paper detector arm so that it slotted properly into the optical sensor - it was a little out of whack and the sensor sometimes couldn't work out whether there was paper in the tray.

[bvan]

Living in Italy at the time, I recall early Olivetti portable computers back in the ‘80’s. They were out of reach for a teenager though, so had to stick to my BBC Micro. Olivetti was the reference when it came to well-designed machines.

[badc0ffee]

In North America I think they're remembered as computers that were MS-DOS compatible, but not PC-compatible, and thus kind of a dead end. Like the DEC Rainbow or the Tandy 2000.

[rbanffy]

Some were, but Olivetti moved into PC compatibles. I’ve used many PC desktops and servers with their brand (and design!).

I have a complaint however. One family of desktops seemed to demand blood sacrifice every time they were serviced. You’d open the machine, replace the failed drive, test, close it up, and a cut would appear in your hand. I don’t remember cutting my hand on the sharp edges inside, but there was always a cut afterwards.