In the early 1990s I worked in IT for a law firm in Seattle that had a Wang system. I wish I could remember what it was, other than a "Wang VS." It had development as well as distributed word processing capabilities (my boss programmed in Speed 2 on the Wang). To me, the most memorable part of the system was doing backups on removable, multi-platter disk packs.
I was actually hired to help move the firm from Wang to a Novell network. My boss never really liked PCs, and was eventually let go due to his attitude.
Mar 29, 2023·edited Mar 29, 2023Liked by John Paul Wohlscheid
We spent a lot of time evaluating PCs and deciding what software to use. Since the vast majority of the attorneys and staff didn't have computers (only word processing and accounting staff had Wang terminals), it actually went pretty well. We were able to gradually train and equip secretaries and paralegals with 286s running WordPerfect and MultiMate (for the word processing staff), the PC version the Wang word processor, and eventually attorneys as well. And that first server... 300MB of hard drive space seemed huge in 1991. Partners had to buy their own hardware; we gave them minimum specs and let them get whatever they wanted. It made for a very amusing Christmas party that year, all the partners standing around bragging about how big their hard drives were.
We kept the Wang for accounting purposes for several more years, until after I'd left the firm.
I worked in uk for wang in the 80’s, my first course was on the wang system 5, had an amazing time, worked initially on 6581w daisy wheel printer, but OIS, Alliance, DVX,typesetter then VS finally install 1st VS10000 at Chestertons, plus Tempest engineer, amazing time so sad it came to an end.
I never used a Wang computer, but wow, those commercials are incredible!
When I saw the ads, I knew I had to write this article.
In the early 1990s I worked in IT for a law firm in Seattle that had a Wang system. I wish I could remember what it was, other than a "Wang VS." It had development as well as distributed word processing capabilities (my boss programmed in Speed 2 on the Wang). To me, the most memorable part of the system was doing backups on removable, multi-platter disk packs.
I was actually hired to help move the firm from Wang to a Novell network. My boss never really liked PCs, and was eventually let go due to his attitude.
What was the move from Wang to Novell like? What did it take?
We spent a lot of time evaluating PCs and deciding what software to use. Since the vast majority of the attorneys and staff didn't have computers (only word processing and accounting staff had Wang terminals), it actually went pretty well. We were able to gradually train and equip secretaries and paralegals with 286s running WordPerfect and MultiMate (for the word processing staff), the PC version the Wang word processor, and eventually attorneys as well. And that first server... 300MB of hard drive space seemed huge in 1991. Partners had to buy their own hardware; we gave them minimum specs and let them get whatever they wanted. It made for a very amusing Christmas party that year, all the partners standing around bragging about how big their hard drives were.
We kept the Wang for accounting purposes for several more years, until after I'd left the firm.
I worked in uk for wang in the 80’s, my first course was on the wang system 5, had an amazing time, worked initially on 6581w daisy wheel printer, but OIS, Alliance, DVX,typesetter then VS finally install 1st VS10000 at Chestertons, plus Tempest engineer, amazing time so sad it came to an end.