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by chipotle_coyote
532 days ago
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The Tandy 2000 was the only 80186-based machine I'd known of until now. I actually had one for a while, bought from Radio Shack when they were quietly dumping the remaining stock for something like 90% off. It was like a computer from a slightly alternate timeline, one where MS-DOS's original notion of not being tied to PC-specific hardware (e.g., more like CP/M) actually took off. |
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In the early 80s, when it wasn't yet clear that PC clones would dominate, it was a wonderful machine: it had a workstation-class (for the time) graphical display and was faster than any IBM product until the second-rev AT came out.
Microsoft was more focused on being cross-platform back then. Multiplan, for instance, ran on an abstract machine and so was ported to everything from minicomputers to the frickin' TI-99/4A. They even tried to consolidate Xenix and MS-DOS on a single unified API called "XeDOS"; fun fact: this is how MS-DOS 2.0 got subdirectories and piping/redirection.
Did you spot the Tandy 2000 used as a prop in Stranger Things? It was the cash register for the video store they used to search for Eddie in I believe Episode 2 of Season 4.