Quite the blast from the past although it doesn't quite square with my recollections of the time. While the LCD screens of the time were pretty awful, I'm not sure I agree that "The word processing and spreadsheet packages commonly available for them are intended to accomplish tasks to which laptop computers are simply not well suited." Grey-on-grey LCD notwithstanding, a system like the DG/One was as suited to spreadsheets or word processing as a desktop.<p>My memory is that price was really the big issue. Laptops--as opposed to luggables--carried a big premium over desktop systems that were already (by today's standards) pretty pricey. It's probably also worth noting that most business travelers wouldn't have been able to connect to company systems from the road (and many wouldn't have had email anyway) so the utility of traveling with a computer in 1985 would have been pretty limited in most cases.