DesqView reddit / bbs ---------------------------------------------------------------------- UnaClocker · 2018-07-28 14:54 Anyone else use DesqView back in the day? I had almost forgotten about this beauty. Scored a copy from a local pirate BBS and it allowed me to multitask DOS so that I could run 3+ nodes at once. I think I had a 486sx-25 with about 4 megs of ram. I was running Renegade BBS software at the time. Circa 1993 or so. It did an amazing job of multitasking, I don’t recall the hot keys but it was like switching terminals in Linux is nowadays. Full screen toggle between “nodes”. Each one in its own DOS session. Good times. I think at my peak, I had 3 phone lines and I or my friends would get on locally for some LORD or just the chat rooms in general. Good times. I was about 15 years old at that point. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- scrutinizer80 · 2018-07-28 15:34 Loved it. Used version 2.7 quite extensively. Double pressing ALT was the hotkey if I remember correctly. Tried Desqview/X later on but couldn't figure out what to use it for. :) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 0x15e · 2018-07-28 16:09 I remember DesqView for sure, but does anyone remember doing it with os/2? I could swear that was a thing too. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- UnaClocker · 2018-07-28 16:16 I was getting into OS/2 Warp a bit back then. I think I had been using DesqView for a few years at that point. It was a lot lighter weight, but the real multitasking in OS/2’s emulated DOS was really amazing compared to the way Win3.1 would just stop the background tasks. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- edge_of_etiquette · 2018-07-28 16:37 I think I still have a pirate copy on floppy somewhere... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- athen66 · 2018-07-28 19:37 sure did... not so fond memories of trying to get QEMM working optimally with desqview and 4+ bbs nodes open! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- chromenomad · 2018-07-29 03:36 I vaguely recall always being able to tell when someone was running their board under Desqview because the connection speeds never matched the performance. This might have been in the 386 days though? Funny I was just reminiscing about this today. And os2. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- GuruMedit · 2018-07-29 06:35 Sorry I never had DOS. Did this used to allow multiple operations on a dialup like IceTERM BBS did for Amiga? Like being able to download QWK while still playing door games? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- liquid_j · 2018-07-29 14:29 os2 warp was brilliant... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2018-07-30 00:13 [deleted] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- sburggsx · 2018-08-08 03:53 Ah DesqView. I ran a Wildcat! BBS and when I finally made this work it was a game changer. I couldn’t get online and do things at the same time people were dialed in. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- jokker115 · 2018-08-10 15:02 I'm using this for my DOS BBS right now. Certainly took me awhile to get it all working with the advent of memory extenders and networking. There isn't a lot of information like there is today about setting things up and the tips and tricks. The really nice thing is having so much memory to throw around now. Each window gets like 16M of RAM and that's more than my computer had when I was running it with my BBS in the 90's. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- G_Porgie · 2018-08-10 20:10 Back in the day I ran my board under DV so I could still do some work on the compy without shutting down the BBS (only ever ran a single node). Worked very well. Had a 386sx-20 with 4MB RAM on it, and it ran RemoteAccess and FrontDoor like a top. I installed it on my old 486 for nostalgia reasons and played with a couple old copies of Lotus 1-2-3, WordPerfect, and a couple comm programs to see how much I could load on it before it cratered. Everything except Lotus would work flawlessly (Lotus would bring it to a crashing halt because it runs in graphical mode). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- AtariBasic · 2018-08-17 12:40 Sounds like my college experience! Also running a 3-line BBS, also Renegade, also under Desqview. 486DX4/100 with a 19.2 and two 2400s. Desqview had phenomenal multitasking ability for its era. I recall the COM port throughput being noticeably choppy, but you could more or less fix this with proper buffer settings. IIRC, you switched sessions by either double-tapping Alt, or using Alt+1, Alt+2, etc. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- AtariBasic · 2018-08-17 12:51 I was a serious OS/2 fanboy back in the day. When Warp came out, it was light years ahead of Windows 3.1. It was more comparable to Windows XP, seven years ahead of its time. Clearly OS/2 was going to be the future! And we all see how that worked out. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- AtariBasic · 2018-08-17 12:52 Didn't QEMM come with a built-in memory optimizer that would run through multiple boot cycles to map out how programs allocated memory, and then edit your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT to load things in the best possible order? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- AtariBasic · 2018-08-17 12:54 No. That would need to be coded into the BBS software itself. DESQview allowed multiple instances of non-multitasking-aware software to run simultaneously. In order to do what you're asking, you'd have to run two instances of the BBS software, call in using two lines, and log in using two different sessions. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- liquid_j · 2018-08-17 14:16 "grumble grumble fucking billgates grumble grumble microsoft sucks grumble grumble" Me, the entire 90's. IBM built the superior product, but lost the marketing war. I LOVED warp. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- YserviusPalacost · 2018-09-07 18:58 I never got to try Warp, but I was running my BBS on OS/2 2.1. Loved it so much more than Windows. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- _into_the_void_ · 2018-09-28 07:54 Haha! I loved warp and actually beta tested Merlin. Was epic. And then evil Windows 95 started becoming the thing and that was it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- kekkersket · 2018-12-14 09:04 >486sx-25 with about 4 megs of ram Holy balls. This was my EXACT machine. It was manufactured by AST. After going to a computer store one day and seeing their main demo machine playing Doom at flawless framerate, I upgraded to a DX2/66 w/ 8 mb ram.