Paul & Sheri wrote:
>
> Kip Crosby wrote:
>
> > At 17:24 5/19/98 -0400, Allison wrote:
> > >....I think winders didn't run on
> > >the 80186(8) used in one of the tandys and a few oddballs. mostly because
> > >the 186 has some on board peripherals (DMA and interrupts) that were not
> > >PCclone compatable.
> >
> > On the contrary: There was a special version of Windows for the Tandy 2000
> > (80186) and Bill Gates referred to it as "the first computer built
> > specifically to run Windows."
> And, if I'm not mistaken, he had a suite of Tandy-specific Windows apps that
> just happened to be ready to ship.....Tandy had to take 'em because there were
> no other apps written at the time that would run on their machine. I believe
> this was a long-standing DOS sales technique that Uncle Bill just carried
> through to Windows.
>
> BTW, Tandy ended up with a warehouse full of the machines because they ran so
> badly they couldn't sell 'em. I believe a bunch were shipped to RS stores to
> use as store computers.
>
> Paul
> NerdWare
The Tandy 2000 was faster then the AT that came out a year later (8 Mhz
80186 vs 6 Mhz 80286). Actually, Windoze for the Tandy 2000 didn't
show up until after the AT came out. Nor did a bunch of other bits of
vaporware that Tandy took the word that the vendors could deliver. It
can be Hell sliding down the leading (bleeding) edge of technology, as
it can be any other time you slide down the razor blade of life. Tandy
took risks in those days, some won and some lost. Ask your local IBM
rep about the Transportable and the Junior -- admittedly IBM had bigger
feet when they shot themselves in them, an easier target. Tandy made
some really bad judgement calls in picking vendors for a couple of
years -- Microsoft was definitely one such. (MicroWare was much more
reliable, produced operating systems that crash much less often -- if
ever, since I've never seen it happen unless I forced it to check
debugging tools superior to anything available for NT except at _large_
extra cost, since they aren't from MS.).
Yes, Billy-boy did refer to it as the first computer built to run
Windows. Then he changed the rules about what Windows would run on.
Have you tried lately to boot Windows '95 on a 486/33 with 8-Meg RAM?
The "System Requirements" include it. Don't plan on much else for that
day, or maybe that week..
--
Ward Griffiths
They say that politics makes strange bedfellows.
Of course, the main reason they cuddle up is to screw somebody else.
Michael Flynn, _Rogue Star_
Received on Wed May 20 1998 - 21:33:36 BST