The first entry in the line, simply named the Walkabout, was a battery-powered portable terminal capable of emulating multiple protocols; as well, it contains a rudimentary word processor, an autodialer utility for placing phone calls, and a real-time clock display and timer application for setting reminders.

The successor to the first model, the Walkabout/SX, released in 1990, was an architectural redesign allowing the laptop to be used as a general-purpose IBM PC compatible.

Development of the Walkabout began in the mid-1980s, with Vernon Weiss leading the design team as Data General's portable product manager.

Aside from its terminal emulation functionality, the original Walkabout contains in ROM a rudimentary word processor application, capable of composing and storing up to 16 KB of text.

[4] The original Walkabout, with its non-backlit monochrome LCD, measures 12 by 10.6 by 1.9 inches (30.5 by 26.9 by 4.8 cm) and weighs 5 pounds (2.3 kg).

[4] The Walkabout/SX, introduced in March 1990, was a radical departure from its predecessor, measuring larger and heavier than the original Walkabout while giving it true IBM PC compatibility through the adoption of Intel's i386SX processor, a 3.5-inch, high-density floppy disk drive, a VGA display, and a standard IBM PC–compatible chipset and BIOS.

[14] The Walkabout/386SL, introduced in September 1992, was a slight revision over its predecessor, replacing the i386SX with the portable-oriented, power-saving i386SL processor—now clocked at 25 MHz.

[18] The original Walkabout sold slowly, according to Weiss, who wrote that, as a thin email client in the late 1980s, "[i]t was a great idea that was ahead of the hardware curve".

[1] Despite its lack of success in the marketplace, the Walkabout proved to be the conceptual prototype for mobile thin clients of the 2000s, such as Palm's cancelled Foleo and Hewlett-Packard's HP Compaq 6720t.

This incarnation of the laptop was remarketed by Allen-Bradley as a terminal for its line of programmable logic controllers (PLCs) for use in factory automation.