5 ms·

I'm a big fan of Wang, especially the PC-compatibles that came out in the later 80s. Jan van de Veen[0] has a Wang-themed website/personal museum with some grea

I'm a big fan of Wang, especially the PC-compatibles that came out in the later 80s. Jan van de Veen[0] has a Wang-themed website/personal museum with some great pics. [0]: http://home.wxs.nl/~janvdv/wang/wangmuseummenu.htm http://home.wxs.nl/~janvdv/wang/wangmuseummenu.htm

Finnucane 4y ago
In the mid 1980s I worked for a guy who did COBOl programming on Wang VS systems. I recall setting up a PC network for one of our clients. The Wang PC boxes were huge. The other thing I remember was that when An Wang announced his retirement no one had any confidence in Fred. My boss and our more clued-in clients all thought Fred was going to run the company into the ground, adn they were right.
- georgia_peach 4y ago
  To be fair, I think An shot himself in the foot long before the boy took over--by making a "PC" with a 16-bit bus when the standard was 8-bit. From a computer engineering perspective, it was the obvious and correct thing to do. From a business perspective, it was an epic fail.
  - Finnucane 4y ago
    that could be--it's been a long time, but my memory is that the network cards were Wang-specific, you couldn't use generic pc cards. They really did not get the whole PC thing. They'd basically invented office automation, but couldn't get to the next stage.
    - georgia_peach 4y ago
      DOS was barely an operating system, so the programs had to bundle their own drivers & speak directly to the hardware for anything more than disk/compute. Because of this, that one little 8/16 change cut Wang off from the lion's share of the PC software library--first man to the gold rush, but without a pick or a shovel. It's a shame they didn't make it though. From a technical perspective, the old man knew what he was doing.
- smarks 4y ago
  Yes, this. My father worked for Wang through the 1970s and he thought it was a huge mistake that An Wang handed over the company to his son Fred, instead of to a company veteran like J.F. Cunningham, who left around the time it became clear that Fred would be An Wang's successor. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-07-20-fi-6028-story.html https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-07-20-fi-6028-s...

Finnucane 4y ago

In the mid 1980s I worked for a guy who did COBOl programming on Wang VS systems. I recall setting up a PC network for one of our clients. The Wang PC boxes were huge. The other thing I remember was that when An Wang announced his retirement no one had any confidence in Fred. My boss and our more clued-in clients all thought Fred was going to run the company into the ground, adn they were right.

georgia_peach 4y ago
To be fair, I think An shot himself in the foot long before the boy took over--by making a "PC" with a 16-bit bus when the standard was 8-bit. From a computer engineering perspective, it was the obvious and correct thing to do. From a business perspective, it was an epic fail.
- Finnucane 4y ago
  that could be--it's been a long time, but my memory is that the network cards were Wang-specific, you couldn't use generic pc cards. They really did not get the whole PC thing. They'd basically invented office automation, but couldn't get to the next stage.
  - georgia_peach 4y ago
    DOS was barely an operating system, so the programs had to bundle their own drivers & speak directly to the hardware for anything more than disk/compute. Because of this, that one little 8/16 change cut Wang off from the lion's share of the PC software library--first man to the gold rush, but without a pick or a shovel. It's a shame they didn't make it though. From a technical perspective, the old man knew what he was doing.
smarks 4y ago
Yes, this. My father worked for Wang through the 1970s and he thought it was a huge mistake that An Wang handed over the company to his son Fred, instead of to a company veteran like J.F. Cunningham, who left around the time it became clear that Fred would be An Wang's successor. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-07-20-fi-6028-story.html https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-07-20-fi-6028-s...