
The Ghosts of Windows 3.1 - shortformblog
https://tedium.co/2019/04/09/windows-3.1-obscurities
======
smacktoward
_> Well, the secret of the VIS was this: It was effectively a low-end PC (a
286, to be exact)_

Tandy had this incredible, inexplicable love affair with the 286 processor.

IBM sold a ton of PC/ATs with 286es in them, but overall the clone market
tended to treat the 286 as what it was, a deeply flawed first attempt to solve
the problems of the 8086/8088\. When the 386, which finally fixed those
problems in a way that was elegant and usable, came along, most cloners
enthusiastically jumped to that chip. But Tandy kept chugging along making 286
machines like the Tandy 1000 TX and TL into the mid-'90s, by which time they
were deeply, obviously obsolete.

The only thing I can figure is that they had a sweetheart deal with Intel of
some sort on the 286, and therefore couldn't bring themselves to let it go
even long after everyone else had.

~~~
cr0sh
> the 286 as what it was, a deeply flawed first attempt to solve the problems
> of the 8086/8088

The 186 never gets any love...

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_80186](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_80186)

...and yes, despite it's flaws, it did make it in a few PC machines...kinda.

~~~
smacktoward
Indeed! I'd somehow completely forgotten about the old 186.

And one of the very few clone makers who brought a 186 machine to market
was... Tandy:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tandy_2000](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tandy_2000)

(They really knew how to pick 'em, huh.)

~~~
cr0sh
Heh - didn't know the 2000 was based on the 186, but that seems likely. Most
of those machines were well out of the range of my parent's budget - though
after they passed away, and I looked on their receipts for what they spent on
my CoCo collection (all of which I still own) - well, I just shake my head.

I guess it paid off - they did live long enough to see me become a software
engineer (though as a kid I never gave that career choice an iota of thought).

Anyhow - Radio Shack/Tandy always did have a thing about custom machine
designs; they always wanted things to be in-house, and that too probably
helped cause their eventual demise, because it took a long time for them to
sell a "clone" (I can't recall which was their first true clone; I want to say
it was the Tandy 4000 or 5000 - I think it had an "MPC" designation, and came
with a CD-ROM drive, and was super expensive at the time).

Of course, they eventually just started selling other brand's clones, and not
even rebadging them, much like they did the RCA line of audio/video components
(I have a Realistic 100 watt component stereo that I got in high school picked
from separate components - still works well; got an amp/receiver, the 15-band
EQ with the LED display in the middle, and a tape deck - coupled to a pair of
12 inch 3-way speakers they sold - still a nice system, though a bit rough on
the edges today).

