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DesqView/X: Night of the Living Dead Codebases
Pazuzues writes "I found something that you could say peaked my interest. It seems Symantec (purchasers of former company Quarterdeck) has release DeskView/X into public domain and can be downloaded now. DesqView/X was a GUI and OS extender that installed into DOS very much like MS Windows does. This little GUI can run X-Windows and MS Windows 3.x software and can even gateway serve MS Windows applications to remote X terminals. It was way ahead of its time and is a pretty decent toy to play with if you have a old 486 laying around. Anyways there is a petition being started that is petitioning Symantec to release the source code as OpenSource. I think this is a really good idea and could possiably help alot of other existing projects like WINE for example. It can load X and rexec X apps with 16mb RAM for Pete sakes!"
It's true.
Really, are there any constructive comments that can be added to this discussion besides "sign the petition!"?
Not to troll, but I think we all know what needs to be done and why it would be a good thing to do it.
Its clear this write-up was written by a 13 year old who never attended an english class in his life. Oh how I weep for the future.
Find dead horse. Pickup stick. Hit several times for effect.
Slashdotted already?
I have an old 486 lying around, but I don't have any DOS install disks lying around. Anyone where I could find them? This sounds like it would be cool to try out. Unless maybe the original win95 install disks allow you to install DOS only?
The future isn't what it used to be.
Wow, that's a new low even by Slashdot standards. I mean, I've learned to ignore the sheer tonnage of "seperately" and "definately" and the like, but this is scary.
And then people post Ask Slashdot's about the value of attending a Real College and getting a Real Degree ...
One simple rule for its versus it's
I remember having to use DESQVIEW to multitask when I was running my BBS off of MSDOS.. Ahh, full screen ANSI menu's and RIP graphics to boot. I want my bbs, and I want it now.
BTW, i'll "deffentntnetnly" check this out.
If it's been released into the public domain, why does it need to be "Open Sourced"?
TSOL - Peace Through Power
A lonely teenage daydream
Of things that I might have been
A surreal kind of thinking
Keeps drifting in on me
The Remington Electric
I'm banging on its keys
The words appear before me
Their meaning's guaranteed
A foreboding gloom upon us
Of death ribbons and bows
A gift to our generation from
the men who have gone before
My twisted body is lifeless
Not so their twisted minds
Peace through power is their motto
Power through peace is their crime
A sadistic smile spreads across my face
Amid my mournful wail
For although they killed a world
Their fate was also sealed
More info here
I am a troll hired jointly by Microsoft and America Online. I have come here to poison your discussions and discredit open source.
Ph3ar!
Actually, one of the most usefull features of DesqView/X was the ability to remotely access serial ports on another machine. I used to work in a customer service group who's application was only avilable via an RS232 connection. Each workstation was limited to two physical serial lines that had been run from X.25 nodes. A number of us installed DV/X and shared our ports out when we weren't working. This allowed you to grab unused remote ports and open 4 or more serial connections with our mainframe apps. Very handy.
* As is generally the case, my opinions do not reflect those of my employer.
If code is in the public domain anyone is free to do whatever they want with it. Therefore it is by definition Open Source. I'm sure if you check out the OSD on opensource.org it will include Public Domain.
--
Justin Chapweske, Onion Networks
I will forward you to the SBA!
muahahahaha!
Hi -
:)
Your interest may have been peaked, but mine was piqued
TWR
Back in the day...
:) I wouldn't have all these wasted brain cells which know every single bug in DOS/QMM. :)
... my "modern" first computer was a 386DX... basically because it was 32 bit and had a math coprocessor. Damn that thing was cool. I had computers before that but this was the first one I thought was da bomb.
After a while I would tweak DOS to get the MAXIMIM amount of conventional memory 640k out of it. Quarterdeck Memory Manager did an AMAZING job of moving things around and forcing them to load in the correct memory segment.
It was always amazing to see how well it would increase your memory.
I would run QMM, DesqView for multitasking and Norton Commander as my filemanager, and QModem to get into my neighborhood BBS.
QMM was needed with DesqView because it required a lot of resources.
I was S000 37337!
Man I wish I had Linux 2.4 and Debian back then !
Kevin
$ host disvr.cjb.net
:-)
disvr.cjb.net A 66.24.22.15
$ host 66.24.22.15
Name: syr-66-24-22-15.twcny.rr.com
Address: 66.24.22.15
$ ping syr-66-24-22-15.twcny.rr.com
PING syr-66-24-22-15.twcny.rr.com (66.24.22.15): 56 data bytes
--- syr-66-24-22-15.twcny.rr.com ping statistics ---
5 packets transmitted, 0 packets received, 100% packet loss
Run your site on a Road Runner cable modem and you KNOW it'll get slashdotted
Anyone got a mirror?
It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
Is it really as useful as people think? If its abandonware, then it has fallen so out of date that there is no point in keeping it hidden. Why would Borland release Turbo Pascal 5.5 and Turbo C(++?) 1.01 into the public domain when the "newer" (but still really old) versions of those apps are still private? Because the old ones have lost so much functionality relatively.
Ancient X apps and Windows 3.1 applications? That's great if you're still coding in outdated setups. Current standards seem much more complex, open-ended and harder to emulate. Wine is probably not perfect for a reason.
--
"Everybody wants a rock to wind a piece of string around." - They Might Be Giants, "We Want a Rock"
Ahh, people type things like "prolly" and "gonna" and "whadda you think". The author was likely aware of his playful choice of words.
DESQview/X 2.1 is available for download from http://www.chsoft.com
Disk 1
Disk 2
Disk 3
Disk 4
Disk 5
Disk 6
Disk 7
Disk 8
FREEdisk
The future isn't what it used to be.
By the way, its not peaked my interest.
It's piqued.
Carry on.
Does anyone know when exactly Metallica played Danzig's tune Mother? I have a bootleg MP3 of them performing it. I have a feeling they played with Danzig on stage. Metallica does a very good job. But Glen could still kick James's ass.
It **peaked** his interest? Try piqued.
I was visiting an old abandonware sites, recapping yesterdays gone by when I found something that definitely piqued my interest. It seems Symantec (purchasers of former company Quarterdeck) has released DeskView/X into public domain and it can be downloaded now. DesqView/X was a GUI and OS extender that installed into DOS very much like MS Windows does. This little GUI can run X-Windows and MS Windows 3.x software and can even gateway serve MS Windows applications to remote X terminals. It was way ahead of its time and is a pretty decent toy to play with if you have an old 486 laying around. Anyway, there is a petition being started that is petitioning Symantec to release the source code as OpenSource. I think this is a really good idea and could possibly help a lot of other existing projects; for example, WINE. It can load X and rexec X apps with 16mb RAM for Pete sakes!"
By the way, Windows (NT) doesn't load on top of DOS. Nice try, though.
Due to excessive bad posting from this IP or Subnet, comment posting has temporarily been disabled. If it's you, consider this a chance to sit in the timeout corner. If it's someone else, this is a chance to hunt them down. If you think this is unfair, please email jamie@mccarthy.vg.
To whoever decided to moderate 10 of my old posts -1 instantly in the span of 2 minutes: you are a loser. Zapping my karma to zilch hasn't ruined my day a bit. Maybe I'll go over to Kuro5hin where people can carry on an intelligent, unbiased conversation.
--cscx
http://www.chsoft.com/dv.html
a pp s.desqview-x.html
http://www.freemm.org/DesqView X/
http://www.bookcase.com/library/software/msdos.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
A lot of commercial software uses pieces licensed from other people, and sometimes the people who developed the licensed technology aren't willing to release it.
I know of one scanner company that normally plays nicely (releases specs for the protocols for their SCSI and USB scanners) that cannot release their parallel protocol because of agreements they have with the suppliers of the chipsets in the scanners... Yet the company fields hostile "release the protcol you idiots" spam from "Open Source" advocates.
It's cool when a company can release an old product free - but in some cases it's just not possible...
- Steve
yeah! i have orginal boxed version of the desqview/x it was very hard to find it elsewhere , there is none in cleveland oh area and 5 years ago while taking first trip to los angeles and there were alots of used computer stores wow tons of odd and some rare computer hardwares and tillions boxes of softwares and came across the motherlode of desqview/x!!!! ,total weighed like 3 bricks!!!!
,it can be a terminal cleint to remote linux x window server esy way :)
cost? it was 24 bucks for orginal boxed version with thick book
as far i know i seen them before at first opening of new microcenter around 90's it was selling new for $225.00 quite pricey those days
and with using it
If you install w95 and then edit the msdos.sys file, you can add
BootGUI=0
Logo=0
and the machine will start up to a command prompt.
You can then go delete all shell(w95) related things.
--
Mike
We here at the illuminati don't use DOS.
-- Mike wildcard@illuminatus.org
The article doesn't say the source code was released. I assume just the binaries were released into the public domain, and the source code remains secret.
Desqview learned me to do proper programming. It's true. When I used it the first time, all my self-written C programs (and pascal too) bombed because of uninitialized pointer references.
:-)
I had to walk through everything to fix it and it learned me how to threat pointers properly. A lesson learned which will never be forgotten
bash$
OpenDOS/DR-DOS is another free, open source alternative. eBay has MS-DOS for sale too.
It would be really nice to see something that can display windows apps remotely via X (and via something more efficient than VNC).
You, Sir, are disturbed! Stop calling people clueless idiots!
BY METROLLICA
... Ooohhh..." moaned Malda when he turned the page to the all-boys section; his cock throbbed with lust. "OK, how about 'Uncut Hunks' and 'Babes with Balls', you little freak," he said to his cock as he started to pump a little harder. He reached for the lube in his bottom drawer, slathering his hand and cock with the slippery stuff. He closely examined each small picture on the page. He especially liked the really muscular young guy in 'Boot Camp Boys'. Oh, to run his hands up and down that smooth, muscular stomach as he knelt in front of him, pulling that huge cock into his mouth...
ADD ME TO YOUR FRIENDS LIST!
ROB MALDA'S WILD RIDE: NOW WITH PARTS 3 AND 4
Slashdot Headquarters
Office of Rob "CmdrTaco" Malda
9:00 PM
Part I
Rob "CmdrTaco" Malda sat back in his chair gently massaging his cock. He was leafing through the latest issue of the Leisure Times porn catalog, contemplating which video he was going to buy next. The jerk-off factor of each video decreased after a few weeks, so he had to constantly update his collection.
Malda often spent late night hours at his office like this; his apartment was just too lonely. The benefit of having a basement office was no casual passers-by. The rest of the Slashdot crew always thought he was working late on some paperwork; he was notoriously slow in finishing anything dealing with the next Slashcode revision. Or doing work on the latest Slashdot story submission. The Slashdot crew thought correctly that Malda had no personal life.
"Hmmm, should I get 'Killer Cumshots' or 'Ass Eating Insanity'? Or maybe I
Malda arched his back and groaned as he came, shooting cum all over his desk and keyboard. He slumped back down into the chair as his breathing slowed to normal. "I'm definitely going to order 'Uncut Hunks' and 'Boot Camp Boys'."
After a few minutes he pushed his cock back into his pants and wiped up the lube and cum with a tissue. This had become almost a nightly ritual after his last meeting with Jon Katz earlier in the year. Malda wondered if that rat bastard would ever quit his job at Slashdot.
"I wonder if any of these videos star brunettes with green eyes?" Malda said thoughtfully as he flipped back through his catalog. "Or petite redheads?" He chuckled as he looked at the ad for 'Clit Licking Lezzies'.
Malda started to daydream about Michael and Timothy 69'ing each other. "Not again," he groaned as he leaned back to pull his erection out of his pants. He got into a great rhythm. The subjects of his daydream morphed from two homosexual men to two other homosexual men--Richard Stallman and Linus Torvalds sucking each other's cocks.
"Yeah, that's it. That's it!" he panted, imagining himself sliding deftly in between those two hunks. He wanted nothing more than to be on his hands and knees sucking Stallman's cock with Torvalds fucking his ass.
"Uh...uh..." whimpered Malda; he could feel the cum ready to explode out of his cock when the door to the office slammed open and heavy footsteps, belonging to 2 or 3 people, pounded on the floor. Before he could cry out or even identify the intruders a heavy, black hood was shoved over his head and he was hauled roughly to his feet.
Part II
*Damn. What the hell was I doing with my back to the door?* Malda thought angrily, kicking himself mentally. He had swivelled his chair to face the wall to give himself more room for the urgent thrusting his raging hormones had screamed out for and now he was paying the price for his lack of self-control.
"Hey, can we talk about this?" he pleaded before an open hand to the side of his head convinced him to be silent. His silent assailants manouvered him away from his desk, positioning him in the small space between the desk and open door.
His hands were pulled behind his back and secured with soft leather cuffs. One gloved hand brushed his neck, a leathery thumb carressing his neck, finding the exact spot that caused spasms of pleasure to ripple through his body.
A heavy thump sounded to his right, followed by the rusty squeal of a zipper. He sensed someone kneeling next to him, could feel warm breath on his still exposed cock. Noises of items being removed from what he guessed was an army style duffel bag fired his imagination, setting in motion a hundred and one images from his fantasy filled brain.
His suit pants were unzipped and pulled down along with his 'Star Wars: The Phantom Menace' boxers, drawing a snicker from the two men in the room. Once he was naked from the waist down, he was startled to feel cold liquid being sprayed on his feet and legs and then his feet lifted one at a time into what felt like vinyl boots. No... more like a wet-suit, slick and body-hugging. The body suit was worked slowly upwards, with more lubricating oil applied to ease the journey.
When his legs were fully covered, more scented oil was applied liberally to his cock and balls, before they too were enveloped in a tight vinyl sheath. He felt the nozzle of the spray bottle placed gently between his buttocks, inserting a large dollop of grease inside his anus. He tried to impale himself on the intruder, to gain release form the mounting pressure in his balls, but firm hands on his hips held him still, denying him what he needed most.
The nozzle was removed and quickly replaced by a medium-sized butt plug, not big enough to tear or hurt him, but enough to stretch and fill him. Then the suit was quickly rolled up his backside, holding the plug firmly inside of him.
He had an idea who his mysterious assailants might be and since they had yet to cause him harm, he put up no resistance to their preparations. Indeed it was as if they had read his thoughts, had climbed inside one of his favourite fantasies and were recreating it for him and only him.
As the dressing continued, Malda grew very relaxed and peaceful, the oil warming against his skin, congealing to pull the body suit even tighter, until he could no longer tell where his flesh ended and the material began. His exposed flesh was massaged by the sprayer, alternating between feather-light fingertip touches and whole hand carresses, before the oil was applied and then the slick vinyl covered another inch, creeping upwards at a steady rate, like some form of living creature. He didn't even remember when they removed his shirt and tie so they could fit his arms into the tight sleeves.
However he did begin to panic when he felt the vinyl reach his throat, certain that they would continue until he was fully encased in shiny black, unable to see, to breathe, to call out. The hood was claustrophobic enough, the full mask he envisioned them using was utterly terrifying.
He must have been visisbly shaking with fear, for he was suddenly embraced from behind and in front, sandwiched between two strong, solid bodies. Two rigid erections pressing against him, soothing whispers in his ears, comforting him, letting him know that he was not in danger.
And then the hood was removed and Malda felt his erection deflate as he stared at the naked, pasty-white body of...
Part III
...Steve Ballmer.
"Damn," he muttered, not even wanting to look at who was behind him. "What are you doing here bothering me?" he whined.
"Shut up, Malda," Ballmer said as he grabbed the upper flaps of the suit to shake Malda. "Who did you expect? A certain kernel hacker? Torvalds ain't here, but Bill Gates is," he said as he nodded to Gates standing behind Malda.
Malda turned to look, and saw that Gates was completely naked already. He looked very strong, barrel-chested and stocky, like a heavyweight boxer. Gates took hold of Malda's suit to turn him around. He had waited for this moment for a couple of years now, ever since the embarrassment of Malda's website running crude editor biased stories on Microsoft.
"Malda, listen to me - and DON'T interrupt," Gates said as Malda opened his mouth to protest. "You caused Ballmer and I a lot of trouble and embarrassment this past spring. And frankly, you'd been nothing but trouble the whole time you have been started Slashdot. I'm not like Torvalds - I don't put up with that kind of crap from my friends. If they give me trouble, I put them in their place immediately. Isn't that right, Steve?" Gates asked.
"Yes, sir."
"And how do I enforce discipline, Steve? How did I handle that little incident you and I had last week?"
"You fucked me, sir."
"What was that?"
"You fucked me like I deserved to be fucked," Ballmer said quietly, averting his eyes from Malda's inquiring gaze.
"That's right. You screw me over, or my company, and you get screwed. Literally. I've only known one person who never got punished the way he deserved. Do you know who that is, Malda?" Gates shook Malda to punctuate his remark.
"Uh, me, sir," mumbled Malda, already dreading where this was going.
"That's right. And do you know why you never felt my wrath, Malda?"
"No, sir."
"Because of that damn Linux geek culture backing you up! It seems they had plans for you - I think sex slave comes closest to explaining it. It was going to be the ultimate revenge against closed source by making you a lovely, obedient sex slave. So no one was allowed to touch you."
"Really?"
"Yes, but as with all plans that hinge around you, you ruined it. So this is payback time. And, I figured since poor little Ballmer here suffered quite a bit from Slashdot as well, I thought he should get a little compensation too. He's turned out to be quite the tip-top chief executive - it only took a couple of ass-fucks on top of my desk to improve his performance."
"I don't think Torvalds would appreciate you treating his friends this way," said Malda in a desperate attempt to save himself.
Gates shook Malda violently. "Don't mention that man's name in my presence again! The only thing that would have made this evening turn out perfect was to have Torvalds here. You see, we had plans for him too." Gates pointed to another vinyl suit, much like Malda's, spilling out of the duffel bag.
"Ballmer, get the gag."
"Yes, sir," replied Ballmer as he picked up the second duffel bag. He pulled out a gag that had a short but thick dildo attached to it. He brought it over to Gates. Malda didn't say a word; he watched Ballmer in mute fascination.
Gates took it and was about to shove it into Malda's mouth, but he stopped.
"I've changed my mind. Steve, take off the suit." Gates grabbed Malda by his hair and pushed him back onto his desk. Ballmer unzipped the suit and peeled it off of Malda. Gates held Malda's arms down once they were free of the suit. "Get the handcuffs."
Ballmer removed a pair of leather cuffs from the bag. "Cuff Malda's arms behind his back," Gates said as he flipped Malda over. Ballmer attached the cuffs. Gates grabbed Malda by his hair and dragged him off the desk until he was kneeling down, naked and still shiny from the spray.
Part IV
"Malda, it's time that you started making your apologies to Ballmer. Steve, you can lean against the desk." Gates took Malda's head and pushed it into Ballmer's crotch. "Malda, I'm only going to tell you this once. You will give Steve the best cock-sucking he has ever had, or we're going to put you back in the suit and tie you to the front gate of the building. You got that?" Gates asked, shaking Malda's head.
"Yeah, I got it," grumbled Malda. Suck Ballmer's cock! Ugh. After his great fantasies of Torvalds and Stallman, to be faced with the reality of the little pink worm in front of him - it was too disappointing.
"Do it!" demanded Gates.
"Ok, ok, don't shout," Malda said as he moved forward to get comfortable.
Malda tentatively ran his tongue up the length of Ballmer's still-soft cock. Ballmer let out a little moan and put his hand on Malda's head. His cock began to swell as Malda continued to lick up and down the shaft. Once it stood straight, Malda took the length of into his mouth. He couldn't believe he was doing this. His own cock even began to swell as he attacked Ballmer's cock more hungrily. Fully erect it wasn't half bad - he might get through this night after all. Of course Ballmer had to ruin it by talking.
"I have dreamed about this moment Malda. The thought of you on your knees in front of me, servicing me! And I'm going to have a momento of this occasion too," he said pointing to Gates who was videotaping the whole scene.
Malda tried to pull back to protest, but Ballmer grabbed his head with both hands and began to fuck his face. Malda stunned himself by getting into the rhythm as Ballmer let go of his head. Malda let go of the cock, ran his tongue down the underside, and onto and around Ballmer's balls.
"Wow, you're really getting into this, ain't you Malda? You like it? You like to suck cock?" said Ballmer as Malda returned to deep throating his cock.
"No wonder Torvalds was so anxious to get you back with the Linux community," said Gates. "He didn't want to lose such a good cocksucker."
"Shut up," said Malda as he let go of the cock for a moment.
"Ooohh, I'm going to cum!" cried Ballmer as he started to jerk his hips forward.
"Malda, stop!" yelled Gates. "Steve, blow your wad on your chest and stomach!"
"What?!" cried Ballmer.
"Just do it!"
"OK!" Ballmer grabbed his cock from Malda's mouth, gave it a few quick jerks, and shot his cum all over his torso. He continued to finger the head of his cock as his breathing slowed.
"Why did you want me to do that?" he asked.
"Malda, I want you to lick Steve's chest clean."
"No!" yelled Malda, attempting to stand up. Gates grabbed his hair and shoved him back down.
"You heard me! Do it!" He shook Malda's head again.
"Stop doing that! That really hurts!"
"Obey me then."
Malda shot Gates a deadly look, then turned his attention to Ballmer. Ballmer half-sat on the desk, his chest and stomach dripping cum. Malda shuffled his way forward and started quickly licking.
"I said slowly," growled Gates from behind the video camera.
Malda slowed down, running his tongue over Ballmer's stomach. His own cock was beginning to throb as he thought about what he was doing. He lingered on Ballmer's navel, then slowly worked his way up. The final bit of cum was on the left nipple; he took a long time cleaning that area off, nibbling and licking at the nipple for a while. He couldn't believe he was doing this! And with Ballmer! When he finished, he sat back on his ankles, looking down at his own erection.
"It looks like you really liked that Malda," Gates said softly as he walked over to Malda. He wrapped his fingers in Malda's hair, pulled his head back, and began to kiss Malda. At first Malda resisted, but he soon found himself returning the kiss, running his tongue inside the Gates' mouth, savoring the flavor.
"Gates?"
"Yeah, Steve," replied Gates after slowing withdrawing from Malda's mouth.
"You need to see this."
"What is it?" Gates said as he turned around. Ballmer was pointing to to a nudist magazine that was partly obscured by the numerous skin mags on Malda's desk. Keeping his pudgy fingers firmly entwined in his captive's thick hair, Gates used his free hand to pull the magazine off the desk. It fell open to a well used page, the small amount of text partially obscured with dried cum. It was a centerfold showing a scene which immediately fired Gates's sadistic imagination and his anger that he was not the focus of the altered picture.
*That can soon be amended,* he thought.
"So, you're into all that back-to-nature crap, Malda?" Gates sneered, holding the triple-length centerfold up to reveal all its artistic glory. "Grown men dancing naked around camp-fires, chanting gibberish and banging their drums before fucking each other senseless?"
Malda's face turned red as he saw what picture Gates was referring to.
"I am a horse's ass," he muttered, hanging his head to hide his humiliation. He had doctored the picture with old archival photos he had found of Torvalds and Stallman and himself when he was searching the net for old archived articles on Google. He had pasted face shots of his two lovers to the muscular bodies of the Tarzan-like male models posing around the bonfire. They were on their knees in dutiful worship at the base of his throne, gazing up at him in utter adulation, ready and willing to cater to his every whim. *Why couldn't it be like that in reality, why was he the one who lived only to serve his masters, no matter what they required of him* Only in the late night privacy of his deserted office did he allow himself to fantasize the situation reversed, never having the courage to demand equality in the very one-sided relationship he shared with Linus and Richard.
"Did I give you permission to speak?" Gates barked, backhanding Malda across the face and sending him crashing to the floor.
"No." Malda struggled to rise to his knees, not looking at either of his captors, sending a silent plea for rescue to his lovers and his partner.
Out of the corner of one eye, Malda saw Gates raise his hand to deliver another blow and knew what he was waiting for. "No, Sir."
The blow came anyway but somehow he managed to stay upright, his vision blurred and teary.
"Call me Master, boy and maybe you won't have to warm Steve's bed tonight."
Malda looked up to see Ballmer eyeing him lustfully and he almost threw up at the prospect of being fucked by the weasel who had tried to destroy his open source advocacy group.
"Yes, Master."
Ballmer was clearly upset that Malda had chosen to obey his new Master rather than allow himself to be his sex-toy for the night. He brushed up against Gates, rubbing himself on the older man's body like a bitch-in-heat.
"But you promised he would be mine for the whole night...."
Gates swatted Ballmer aside like an annoying blowfly, focusing his attention on how they could get Malda out of the building without raising unwanted attention. He walked over to where the duffel bags lay on the carpet and upended the largest one, spilling its contents.
"Gag him, Ballmer and put him in the bag," he ordered with a malicious gleam in his dark eyes.
Before Malda could react, Ballmer shoved the dildo-gag into his mouth, securing the leather straps painfully tight. He gripped Malda under the arms and hauled him to his feet and over to the canvas coffin. A swift kick to his shins soon had him lying on his side, his lanky legs folded up so that his chin rested on his knees. He quickly secured Malda's ankles with duct tape and drew the sides of the bag up and over the captive. He was about to zip up the body-bag when inspiration struck and he shoved his smelly underwear and socks into the bag.
Gates was busy jerking himself off over Malda's ThinkGeek t-shirts when he heard an embarrassed cough. He turned to find Ballmer struggling to lift the bag off the floor. Not even trying to hide his disgust, he stormed out of the office, returning minutes later with a large wheely-bin. He laid it on the floor on its side and together they managed to cram the duffel inside and lift the bin upright. They shared a satisfied smile as they heard Malda groaning in his upside-down position.
"Come, boy. Let's take out the garbage."
Malda tried desperately to wriggle around so that he was somewhat upright and had almost succeeded when a series of violent bumps jolted his rapidly bruising body. It took a few long seconds before he realized what was happening. At 6pm all the elevators automatically shut down, leaving the stairs as the only way of moving from floor to floor. His captors were doing little to smooth the wild ride he was experiencing and Malda tried to concentrate on how he would exact his revenge when he got himself out of his present predicament.
Continued with Part V
In any case, the release of DV/X wouldn't help WINE in any way, really. DV DV/X allowed you to run Win 3.1 apps in the same way that you can run Classic Mac OS apps in Mac OS X, or that OS/2 2.1 could run Win 3.1 apps. Win 3.1 ran in a little box all to itself. It ran the entire Win 3.1 OE, not implemented the API (as Wine and Odin do). You can see a screenshot of this here.
DV/X was pretty cool, esp. for a DOS user in those days, but it isn't really relevant anymore. I could see people with old DOS machines who wanted the binaries, that makes perfect sense. However, there's really nothing to be gained from the release of the source. It's not like someone can port it to MS-DOS/PowerPC. ;)
Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
I haven't used this before, anyone have more information with screenshots?
kawai
If you're hating VNC because of its bandwidth usage, check out TightVNC. It's basically a fork of VNC that merges in Tight Encoding (which I don't know much about, but which uses far less bandwidth than normal VNC) and a bunch of other nifty features. Of course, since it's a fork of VNC, you can rest assured it's under the GPL.
Nifty features it includes:
It's much more usable over a modem(!), for sure.
"This little GUI can run X-Windows"
I hope it is still supported by Symantec, so I could convince my boss to throw Windows out of our boxes that we use as X workstations (with Exceed) and replace it by DesqView!
NO PLEASE! Just kidding!
Isn't it "Pete's sake" rather than "Pete sakes"? Where does that
saying come from, anyway?
Pazuzues should have written "I found something that you could say piqued my interest. It seems that Symantec (which purchased now-defunct Quarterdeck years ago) has released into the public domain binary versions of DesqView/X. DesqView/X was a GUI and DOS extender that installed over DOS very much like MS Windows did. This little GUI can run X-Windows and MS Windows 3.x software and can even act as gateway to serve MS Windows applications to remote X terminals. It was way ahead of its time and is still a pretty decent toy to play with. It can load X and rexec X apps with 16MB of RAM, for Pete's sake! All it needs is an old 486. A petition has been started to urge Symantec to release the source code under an Open Source license. I think this is a really good idea, as it could possibly help a number of projects, such as WINE. DesqView/X is available for download now."
How much "editing" does being an "editor" involve, anyway? 8^D
Napster-to-go says "Fill and refill your compatible MP3 player", which is a lie. It's not MP3. It's WMA with DRM.
__________ is to ____________ Fill in the blanks with Your Native Language and Your Favorite Programming Language. English is a rich language (that has borrowed/stolen from many others) and you can say a lot with it. It doesn't necessarily have to be consistent or easy. That doesn't mean you shouldn't try.
Lump lingered last in line for brains, and the ones she got were sorta rotten and insane.
Thanks, pazuzes. Now i'm going to have to have a flashback. **sits back**
:)
1994.. Running my BBS locally.. Wanted to multitask... installed Desqview.. wow.. leet! Its like dosshell.. Only.. not! Oh, crap.. LORD is running slow on node 2.. time to tweak QEMM.. lets see if we can get that extra 2K out!
1995.. OS/2 warp comes along. I install it - that extra ~100K on top of 640 is LEET!!! I never go back.
I have to wonder.. How fast would Windows 3.1, DOS, or OS/2 boot on a 1.4 Ghz Athlon?
Does anyone at Slashdot have a dictionary and a thesaurus?
I used the text version of desqview. I tried desqview/X at the time, but the 386-25 with 3 megs of ram I had wasn't quite up to using it usefully.
I'm not POSITIVE about desqview/X's support of windows apps. If I remember correctly, it could export certain apps, but not those running in enhanced mode. Of course, I'm speaking about stuff I was playing with 10 years ago.
And as far as WiNE is concerned, they've pretty well gotten the 3.x API solid, and have for several years now.
-Restil
Play with my webcams and lights here
"It can load X and rexec X apps with 16mb RAM for Pete sakes!"
:)
Great, now all I need to do is change my name by deed poll... software usability at its best
Henry
i don't do sigs. oops.
I used it for quite a while until I started using Linux (1994). Best multi-tasker on a PC prior to Linux. It did display Win3.1 and X both. I don't think I ever used W95 with it. There may be some code secrets in there that could help WINE, but I would not be one to say.
The saying refers to Peter, the apostle of Christ. As in Saint Peter, or "for Saint Peter's sake".
--- witty signature
Remember DoubleDOS? I used that on my XT to multitask my BBS (Opus) and MsgED in a separate window so I could read Fidonet messages while folks were online.
Later on I used DESQview on my 386 and 486 to do the same thing, but by then I was running two phone lines and two modems, so I had three tasks running then (two BBS's and my message reader).
If you're a zombie and you know it, bite your friend!
It's slightly blasphemous.
The apostle Peter.
RIP graphics? OH GOD THE AGONY! THE PAIN!
(ok it was a neat idea, but I never saw anyone make good use of it)
It can load X and rexec X apps with 16mb RAM for Pete sakes!
So can XFree86. At least, the version I was using back in 1992 certainly worked on a 486 with 4MB of RAM. Slow, but functional.
"peaked my interest"
You mean PIQUED. Illiterate.
Ah, for the good old days circa 1991, when 4 megs of RAM was a bunch and DesqView was the method of choice for multitasking on your PC. I fondly recall running my BBS in one DV window while writing term papers in another with WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS.
Quaint things I remember about DV:
* Well-behaved BBS programs (including all the FidoNet tools) were DV-aware and would kindly give up its timeslice if they weren't doing anything.
* QEMM, the memory manager that came with DesqView, had a complicated "optimization" script that tried to rearrange all your TSR programs to maximize the amount of available memory under 640k. The size of each Desqview DOS session was limited to the amount of sub-640k RAM that was free when you started DV, so optimization was really important.
* You started different programs from the DV menu by assigning them two-letter key codes. I remember rearranging the codes at length to minimize the finger travel time needed to open my most frequently used programs.
* DV was really bad at switching video modes. If you happened to be running Windows under DV, the screen would turn to some kind of bizarre CGA/EGA mode when you invoked the DV menu.
DV/X was going to be the "next big thing," but I don't recall hearing about it after the feature article in HAL-PC magazine. In any case, it was quite expensive. Even QEMM was something like $40; I recall getting a copy as a birthday present, which became the only properly licensed piece of commercial software on my machine at the time.
Oh well, better mod this one (-1, maudlin nostalgia).
Who used it to run 9 nodes of PC Express? Come on, someone out there did...
If it's released into the public domain, what does it matter if it's rereleased as open source?
max
The best part of it was the version of Deskview was that the install disk fit on a sigal floppy. You dont see that anymore
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
That'd be a slashdot victim really quick. There was something to running Pine, a DOS Window, RN and WordPerfect all on the same machine. And cutting/pasting between the windows.
Possibly too fast, depending on the applications you want to run.
Last year I was assigned a seemingly trivial "upgrade" project for a customer that runs an old DOS-based app. First of all, I had to find a new PC with an ISA slot -- not as easy as you might think, considering hat the customer wanted a "name-brand" PC with full warranty.
I finally found an HP model with a riser card for ISA support. PC-DOS loaded fine, but when I tried to start the customer's application, the machine locked up tight. After checking with the application vendor, I was chagrined to hear that the program will not run on anything faster than a Pentium 90.
Many DOS-based programs that ran on the ragged edge of (then-current) technology used hard-coded timing loops that simply can't cope with the clock speeds of today's processors.
So maybe DOS will boot super-fast on your Athlon, but there's no guaranty that it wil run many of your "vintage" programs...
What a foresight they must have had when they thought of the name, eh?
--- Hindsight is 20/20, but walking backwards is not the answer.
I ran an older version of desqview - wouldn't run windows, but on an XT clone that ran at 4.77mhz, in 640k, I was able to multitask and it was great! First I tried DoubleDos, and it worked nicely too, but desqview actually had a handful of programs written for it that were "desqview" aware, like Telix, one of the -=great=- old term programs.
Apps that wrote directly to the screen wouldn't multitask properly because they wanted total control of the screen; some programs had "the bios access way" options, but this was HORRIBLY slow on that crate...but some, like Telix, were aware, and shared the screen, so to speak..the result was a bit slower than direct, but much much faster than the alternative.
I even had a utility for desqview that you could load into the dos boxes that would basically put a halt to useles single-user keyboard polling within that window, thereby speeding the whole system up quite a bit...
It was mousable, you could define keyboard shortcuts - it really was the single jack-of-all-trades utility that made computing on that crate bearable...
I also remember cut and paste between apps - in dos, this was great - it even had a 'smart' cut and paste, which was the fore-runner of cut and paste as i know it today...
Ahh, the memories!! logging on to a bbs at 2400 baud, allocating 300k or so to Telix(only the scroll back-buffer was sacrificed), with a dos box open for file management, and a game in a third window - the version I used couldn't truely multitask graphical apps, the games i tried would pause while not active and only run full screen.
It did pre-emtive multitasking to boot! It was WAY ahead of it's time - too bad it got killed along with lots of other promising software lines back in the day...I could launch an app, then launch another app before the first was finished loading! It 'felt' smoother than Windoze 3.1 on a 486 at times!!
Nothing was better than being able to USE my computer while my modem was filling those 360k
5 1/4 disks...
'Cumplane' sounds like a linux-users dream.
Here is my petition to Symantec.
xxxxxxxxxx O xxxxxxxxxx H xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx W xxxxxxxxxx E xxxxxxxxxx L xxxxxxxxxx L xxxxxxxxxx.
I applaud and commend you fine folks at Symantec for allowing the free download of DesqView/X. When this software was new, it was far ahead of its time. I believe it contains technology that much new software would do well to have. In that light, I'm asking you to consider releasing the source code to DesqView/X, so that software such as Linux might benefit from its innovative features.
xxxxxxxxxx O xxxxxxxxxx H xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx W xxxxxxxxxx E xxxxxxxxxx L xxxxxxxxxx L xxxxxxxxxx.
It probably won't happen though.
xxxxxxxxxx O xxxxxxxxxx H xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx W xxxxxxxxxx E xxxxxxxxxx L xxxxxxxxxx L xxxxxxxxxx.
Who own Desqview 1.0 ?
Now what would really be cool is a web browser that autormatically corrects spelling errors on Slashdot. :-P
Give me my freedom, and I'll take care of my own security, thank you.
It's nice to see that it's happened. However, if you read the glossies (I actually have 'em 'round here somewhere), you'll see that "running Windows" stuff is a bit of an exaggeration. It runs Windows stuff... Windows 3.x stuff, to be precise. I'd say that the potential for Desqview/X would be a lot closer to if Sun released WABI than something that could help the good WINE folk.
Alas.
But, hey -- maybe there is some good stuff to mine. It certainly was an amazing application when it came out; hopefully it will be released as OS, and maybe we can do something unexpected with it.
I used DV/X in the olden days. It was most impressive. It really had better multi-tasking that Windows 3.1 of the day. I had great hopes for it, and I think with better positioning, it could have given Windows a run for the money. It was well targeted upon it's first release, and could have made a difference, but they just didn't follow through. And as they languished, it just became less and less relevant. Still a very cool way of turning an old 486 into a X terminal (and client). Would probably be more efficient than (Linux|FreeBSD)+X.
:-), SunRays, most thin Clients, Linux PDA's. I'm sure there's a dozen more (and I'm sure they're all sitting in my basement, colecting dust :-)
There's quite a list of things in my book that really could have "made a difference" in the industry, but just didn't follow through effectively. Microsoft may be slow to respond in a lot of cases, but they *do* respond; other folks take years, or never do anything. For fun, here's my list (off the top of my head): Corel Linux, Corel Office, Star Office, BeOS, QNX (lower the damn license fees, okay?
Here's hoping we'll see more companies whose management can realize when they have a product that can make a difference, and they redirect resources accordingly, rather than thoroughly botching it.
-me
Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
Now try taking an english class.
Salutations, BankofAmerica_ATM
I am a sentient ATM.
Who remembers the _original_ Deskmate, the version that ran in textmode, with an unusual vertical-filepicker interface? (Each application in the suite had a seperate column on the main menu, listing available documents/data files for each program...)
Combine that with a goofy non-Hayes-compatible Tandy 300 baud modem, and you've got hours of fun with the confusing terminal app, on your brand new 1000SX!
Anyhow, turning nostalgia mode off, Linux Window managers could learn from Desqview's sophisticated cut and paste proceedures. It was possible to smoothly paste from, for example, a word processor to cells of a spread-sheet because you could specify keystrokes to go between each piece of data. If the cutting and pasting didn't require any special keys, just press return or space bar to make each line delimited by them. It was simple or powerful, depending upon your needs. KDE (and GNOME, etc.) rock, but they could learn a thing or two about clipboard management from humble Desqview.
My uncle, Gary Pope, was co-founder of Quarterdeck, and did development on all versions of QEMM and DESQview. Unfortunately, he does not have the sourcecode to DESQview anymore, as he gave up all rights to it when he retired. However, he has been able to share with me some of the internals of DESQview and DESQview/X. I won't get into much of them, but to all the people who are hoping to get some useful code they can copy and paste into their own programs by signing the petition, you may be disappointed.
:)
The sourcecode to DESQview/X is (at least for the most part) in Assembly. It was the only way they could create a full X environment that could fit on a couple floppies and take so little RAM. I know previous versions used a language that Gary Pope wrote called SYMPL, which was lisp-based and provided the back-end functionality for the multitasking on 8088 processors in the original DESQ and DESQview.
So, most of the code, if it is ever released, may not be completely usable to most people. It would still be an interesting read, however, and I signed the petition almost a year ago.
Another good source of information on DESQview is the newsgroup comp.os.msdos.desqview. It seems to be pretty active, and has some good information on using DESQview.
DESQview and DESQview/X were great products. Have fun
The Slashdot Story Submission System or Four-S (pronounced "force") is a closely guarded Slashdot secret. As much as Slashdot claims to be anti-patent, in their well-known hypocritical nature, they have a patent pending for their story submission system. It is this very system's precision and robustness that explains why slashdot is so popular yet other similar slashcode sites get less hits that the average AOL user's personal homepage.
Like the formula to Coca-Cola, KFC's secret recipe, and the chemical structure of SPAM, the workings of the Four-S system was the question keeping me awake at night. After weeks of saving my allowance, obtaining a fake ID and making a few trips to the seedier parts of town, I finally had everything I needed to discover the truth behind one of mankind's greatest mysteries.
Thanks to a life-size inflatable tux doll and a keg of mediocre quality lukewarm beer, I had little trouble coaxing the secrets of the Four-S system out of Rob Malda. Between mugs of beer and unspeakable acts against nature (and vinyl inflatable dolls), in his drunken slurred speech, he explained the most intimate details of the four-s system.
R.M.: Well... Hey, your kinda cute. Wanna see a cool trick I can do with a taco?
Me: Umm, I think I know what you have in mind - it won't work. When I was mowing a lawn last summer, I had an unfortunate accident and was involuntarily castrated. How that would effect the outcome of your trick should be self explanatory.
R.M.: Damn, that sucks. Hey, since you've taken yourself out of the gene pool, did you win a Darwin award?
Me: Did you win a Queer of the Year award? All fags like you should be given a Darwin award for taking themselves out of the gene pool. One more comment about my lack of balls and I'm deflating Tux!
R.M.: No, not Tux! I'm SO sorry! How can I make it up to you?
Me: The Four-S system. Tell me about it.
R.M.: Never. I'll take it to my grave.
Me: Damnit Rob, tell me or I'll shove my withered scrotum in your face. It's so nasty BME, Stileproject AND Steakandchese refused to post the picture!
R.M.: You make a compelling case, but no.
ME: Damn you, I'm so mad I don't feel like typing A HREF= anymore! Now you're gonna pay!
At this point I pull down my pants.
R.M: OH LORD OF ALL THINGS HOLY!!! I'M BLIND! OH THE AGONY! FOR GREAT JUSTICE, PUT YOUR PANTS BACK ON!
ME: Not until you tell me about the Four-S!
R.M.: Okay you win, I'll talk, I'll talk. Just put your pants back on.
ME: I don't trust you. Tell me about the Four-S first!
R.M.: Sigh. Okay, the Four-S. Most people think the Four-S stands for "Slashdot Story Submission System", they're wrong - it's just the public codename. It really is an acronym for the four steps involved in story selection. Scratch paper, spin, semen, shredder - That's what the Four-S really means.
During the first step, the "scratch paper" stage, hardworking monks here at Slashdot HQ carefully transcribe each story submission on to a piece of environmentally friendly recycled paper. For the "spin" step, these pieces of paper are then placed in a Kenmore dryer (set to air dry only, heat caused us to lose a whole day's worth of submissions once when the paper burst into flames!) for 5 minutes for a good randomizing effect. Now ready for the "semen" stage, one of the Slashdot editing crew opens the dryer door and proceeds to masturbate into the dryer. Whichever lucky paper happens to catch the wad of jism will be posted to the main page of Slashdot and then placed in the shredder. The reason for shredding a successfully submitted story is simple, if it's shredded, we can be sure we won't see the dried semen on it and accidentally post it again. Since we can only masturbate so many times in one day, you can understand why we're only able to post so many stories in one day - and why so many are rejected. This is exactly why the Four-S system is so much more versatile than other story submission systems.
Me: Wow, that explains a lot. So how did you come up with the Four-S anyway?
R.M.: I was up late one night trying to write a script to randomly pick story submissions, but everyone at Slashdot HQ kept complaining it wasn't random enough. After debating for hours, my throat was becoming sore and I was starting to go hoarse. In frustration, I finally yelled, "Well how do you propose I make it more random, use the for..(cough)..se?" At that moment, the idea dawned on me.
Me: Why am I not surprised?
R.M.: Now that you have this information, you have entered a circle of trust. Promise me you won't tell a soul about what I have told you today!
Me: (With fingers crossed) Sure, I promise.
MORE. Anyone remember this? This is still, imho, hands down the best outliner and brainstorming piece of software ever developed.
It was for the Mac and discontinued about five years ago.
At its core it was just an outlining program but this it did so well (wayyyy better than MS Word)!
sigh... MS really did take the life out of the software industry when they really came of age in the 90's..
mje0w!!!1!
Night y'all!
We were trying to add old BBS doors support to a friends BBS years ago, and we could either get a stack of 286s or a reasonable machine with Desqview 386. Well, Desqview wasn't on the market anymore, so we tried OS/2, Win95, and later WinNT, none would handle our doors. We tried to warez it but failled. We later tried a stack of 286s, but the systems weren't playing nicely with our NT Server (didn't have the expertise or budget for an admin for a Novell server).
A few years ago it would have been great for me. Maybe I'll drop the cash and try the system now...
Alex
I used to be a heavy Desqview (no the X version) user. Nice product for its time. When desqview came, the whole product line was dying anyway. Even if you don't use it, you can download for the X11 (Type 1) fonts. They work really well with X11.
If you install w95 and then edit the msdos.sys file, you can add ... and the machine will start up to a command prompt.
However, you'll have to attrib -h -s -r msdos.sys before you can edit msdos.sys. I'll note that the Windows 95 procedure that wildcard023 gave works only on machines with 386 or higher processors, as some parts of DOS have been upgraded to 32-bit. It also works in Windows 98 and 98SE but not in Windows ME. Microsoft didn't want to release an operating system that would be called "DOS ME" because it didn't want kiddies to take that as a request for a packet flood. (What's the difference again between the Slashdot effect and a distributed non-spoofed SYN flood?)
Also, in all Windows 9x operating systems (including ME), you can get DOS by making an emergency boot disk.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Desqview was a great util... but one caveat:
Do NOT run it on a compressed drive (if anyone still has compressed drives in this era of cheap hard disks!) If you do, sooner or later it WILL eat the compressed volume file.
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
out of the box like they make it sound - it will run windows under desqview x if you already have ms-windows installed - at least thats how I remember it from years back. And it was a clunky way of running windows at that - as the poster stated you had to have 16 megs of ram - which an amazing amount when it came out. My guess is to run it smoothly you'd have to have like 32 or 64.
Dagnabit!
Several points
1) The X that is part of DesQView iw XR4. Don't know how useful that is.
2) As a former employee of Symantec, I do remember that not all of the source code actually made it over from QuarterDeck and I believe that the source code for DesqView was part of that. From what I understand, former QuarterDeck employees wiped a large number of hard drives prior to leaving the company. I don;t think managment really cared as Cleansweep was really the only product that they were interested in, even though Procom also survived (Although management was not really interested in Procom that much)
...I tried bootdisk.com once when I needed to create a boot disk for Win95b and didn't have it installed at the time. Looked harmless enough.
Then one of their disk sets (or the installer) *erased my partition table*.
Fortunately, I had all my data on an old drive (I'd just transferred to the new drive), but that COULD have been disastrous.
Stay away from bootdisk.com, for your own good. The site maintainers may not have known what they were hosting, but either way, you'd be taking a risk.
Alright, I know there are some people who read about these things and get all teary eyed as they relive their youth again. Not me. I was a college student with my 386SX, running MS-DOS. All I wanted to do was run an editor in one window, and Microsoft C 5.1 in the other window. I had hardly any money at all to spend on this stuff. The computer cost me $900 with a lot of scrounged parts, and I could barely afford that. The compiler belonged to my boss. Tuition bills were killing me.
I bought Desqview thinking that would help. It didn't, because it just partitioned the 640K into chunks that were too small. Also, it kept crashing . I spent a lot of time booting my computer. So, I got QEMM to go along with that. I think that I spent $150 for both of them. The QEMM gave me more memory, but it crashed even MORE. I couldn't work that way. Little did I know that it would be more than 3 years before I could move away from MS-DOG onto a real system that would accommodate a poor person AND not crash - Linux.
I have no illusions that those days with MS-DOS were the "good old days." I am forever in the debt of Linus Torvalds and his operating system, and it's all I can do to forget pissing away money that I couldn't really afford to spend, trying to get a Microsoft OS to just plain work. It was a nightmare that I never want to think about ever again.
If tits were wings it'd be flying around.
Has anyone actually confirmed that this is true?
I've been unable to access the site http://disvr.cjb.net/freedv referenced in the article. If this is an offical Symantec decision, why aren't the binaries available from http://www.symantec.com? I just searched their site for the word "DesqView" and found no mention of this supposed release.
The alternative http://www.chsoft.com/dv.html posted here contains binaries but I can't see any mention of any official announcement by Symantec about the binaries now being in Public Domain.
The site http://www.freemm.org/DesqView%20X/, also mentioned in postings here on Slashdot, (and last updated Wed Apr 11 2001) says the following:
It seems to me that this rumour has been around for a few months now.
Finally, if this is true, why isn't there any announcements about it on comp.os.msdos.desqview?. And why did Amos Vryhof, presumably the owner of http://disvr.cjb.net/freedv recently start his own OpenDVX project on Sourceforge?
I'd love for it to be true, but until I see some official announcement from Symantec, I can't say that I believe it.
I ran such a setup for many years with TriBBS, until I finally switched to PCBoard and OS/2 3.0... Everything was much smoother under OS/2 -- no more random lock-ups and slowdowns!
I miss ANSi art tremendously, too. Used to spend way too much time messing around in TheDraw...
Cheers.
I guess you never heard of groups like Future Crew and Renaissance.. the demo scene wasn't just for Amiga you know. There was a HUGE PC demo scene in the early 90s.
TriBBS...long live the bored, *ahem*, BOARD!!!
TriBBS was truly great, though. Not only that, but I _did_ program in RIPscript. I also helped run a PCBoard BBS running on DESQview. We used a PPP gateway with it to provide access to the Internet.
Damn, where's my qwk reader??? BLUE WAVE TO THE RESCUE!!!
-PONA-
King of the Who?.sig
+that's funny...I don't FEEL tardy.+
since symantec is owned by a scientologist, it is unlikely they will release their software as open source. I doubt they would want anyone to see the secret logging software included in it to stamp out anti-scientologist speach.
The Slashdot Effect: A new for
You are going straight to hell, motherfucker.
I use freesco (linux) for a router...it uses a bootstrap scenaria to start linux..you boot to dos...could you run desqview and allow yourself to have a dos console at the same time as the router was running?
The fact remains that those are 2 completely separate operating systems from completely separate development teams. M$ hired David Cutler from Digital Equipment Corp, DEC, (now owned by Compaq) to create NT as an alternative to partnering with IBM to develop a replacement for DOS/Windows 3. It's pretty well documented on the 'Net if you care to search.
Y'know, I thought that all of those terrible mmories of seeing RIP graphics were gone from my brain.
Lo and behold, an image formed into my head that will stay there like a train wreck for quite a while. That terrible, terrible grey, and the grey... and did I mention the grey? And why did everyone see fit to use yellow text on it.
Arrrgh, make it stop.
wwiv bbs software ran GREAT under this software package.. it was the best way to get wwiv to do mulit lines.. I loved this program.
The sky was the color of a television tuned to a dead channel.
Quarterdeck actually received a patent for the "overlapping windows" concept they used in this product.
8 2/
Caused quite a furor at the time -- even had MS worried because Windows used overlapping windows.
http://swpat.ffii.org/vreji/pikta/txt/ep/0344/0
Ancient X apps and Windows 3.1 applications?
/X and you might have IE under Linux : )
If Deskview/X goes Open Source, there might be a Linux port. There's 16 bit versions of Internet exporer 4.01SP2 and I think there might be a 16Bit 5.0 too. Combine them with Desqview
Tho Wine will probably do it soon enough anyway. Just a thought.
nt
The one day my system is offline, I make the front page of Slashdot.... Dammit all to hell!
Just to correct a few misconceptions. It is true, that Desqview/X does NOT run Windows applications without Windows in one of it's windows. Moreover, it is not public domain. I am working hard with people at Symantec to get the rights, but until then it is illegal to decompile or reverse engineer Desqview/X!
As for an OpenSource version of Desqview/X, I am looking for developers to work on it. It is Here! I am getting all of the original documentation, and have all of the original API toolkits.
If your into X, and DOS join the crew, and maybe some good can come of this!
Have a nice night, and I think this will spark enough interest to push Symantec in the right direction.
-AV
Make America grate again!
Even if that were true (which I don't believe it is - they are two separate copyrights), nothing obligates you to release the source code. Even if you have renounced your copyright on it, all that means is that it's not now illegal to copy it. But if you have the only copy, you can still refuse to give it to people.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
I used to work as a stat's programmer for the USDA back in the day. Used Dv/X mostly due to it's ability to run X apps, but also as it ran lots of our stats apps faster than windows did. I must say that seeing it go was quite sad, but then I found Linux. Let DvX die quietly, it was cool in its day.
RE
Nothing like the day of tweaking fossile drivers, setting priority and multitasking in DOS.
Then came along OS/2
If you can find it on google it was the "Linux BBS List". You can see my lowly bored as the one that was "long distance to some areas".. I couldn't afford the metro line fees on my lowly 12 year old allowance.
hahaha
Well this was awesome software in the 80's... If it had been released open source a decade ago when it was still new it would have redefined the OS world. As it stands it is only average at best... Next!
There's a bit of useful code, but not much. Only thing that impressed the hell out of me was the speed of the thing. It could do scrolling virtual desktops on hardware from that era. Nothing else came close in video speed.
The site is Slashdoted. If it is the same as the ones on http://www.chsoft.com then they haven't released the real interesting package which is "DESQview/X to Other X Systems". That package would allow DesQview/X to function as an X server.
The old OS/2 and NT both were designed to be used for servers and high-end workstations. Since NT didn't exist as its own, the closest MS product was OS/2.
As to how much code was used from OS/2 in the early NT versions, I don't know. I am aware that the kernels are different, but there's several simularities beyond simple look and feel between the two. That could just be becuse of similar design though.
Those who can't do, teach. Those who can't teach either, do tech support.
Given that the base HW req's for DV/X are so low (by today's standards), this might let us nip two persistent problems:
... I ran DV on my 386DX-25 for two reasons: I had 8MB of RAM and DV let me use ALL of it, and it let me do modem-intensive apps in the background. I never "up" graded to DV/X, though - hadn't the $$, and I fell into Linux in the 0.99 days.
1. How do we make old computer hardware useful?
2. How do we get low-cost computers to lots of people?
Set up a bunch of 486s, or P-Is running DV/X, give them each a Gnome or KDE desktop running on some other server, and let people surf, or whatever. One high power machine, lots of terminals.
ObPine:
I remember drooling over DV/X back in the day
I ran a 4 node BBS using Vbbs under DesqView. I remember the agony I went trhough trying to create rip graphics for it. I finally canned 'em all and cocenrtated on the ascii. Man, those were the days. Back then we were GODS my friends. I am SYSOP
*LOL*
Of course, early in it's development, Windows NT was known as OS/2 NT, and some bits of code made it from OS/2 into NT and continue on in your modern XP system. So to say that they are "completely separate" is overstating the case.
Unfortunately, the spare 486 walked out of my lab before I could implement it.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Nowadays, we'd probably be caught and tried as terrorists under the Patriot© act, but in those days most folks were trusting...
Yeah, right.
Hmm I remember spending the entire summer of 1989 creating aweomse ascii graphics for the "SixPack BBS" I was the sysop named "The_Drunkard". Only to have my parents decide they didn't want the extra phone line anymore on the same day it went live.
http://www.bootdisk.com - you can get a fully installable copy of DR-DOS 7.0 there.
... I like to keep an open mind, but not so open that my brains fall out. - Judge Harry Stone, Night Court
Do any of y'all remember TSX-32? Well, I shouldn't say "remember", as it is still alive and well. I first found out about the TSX-32 Operating System back when I was in high school in 1992. The neat thing about this OS was that it was multi-user and had virtual consoles way before I had even heard of Linux. Anywho, it's still around and you can download the shareware version from their Web site.
Chris
If the source code is secret, then it cannot be copyrighted. Copyrights are only for things that are published.
PCBoard in one corner, Telix in the other. Those were the days.
I had DesQview386 and NOBODY gave me ONE GOOD reason to move to that awful Windows 3.1 product.
It wasn't until `96 that I gave into the beast.
(Yes, I am aware of the fact I was using MICROSOFT dos. I know that. Still, it's not giving into the beast because MSDOS was really QDOS. At least they said in the name of the product it was quick and dirty. And it was quick. Quicker than 95,98,NT,2k or XP ever are.)
If you look on Simtel there are at least two Desqview-a-like DOS multitaskers, shareware or freeware. But no graphics. In fact it's amazing the amount of weird shit in the Simtel DOS archive.
-- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
I forgot to mention in my previous post that we also used DV/X (about 1990-1991) for a near-real-time simulation and control system. We had a simulator of a nuclear power plant programed in FORTRAN running in one window of DV/X. In the other window we had an I/O interface transfering data between the simulator and a *REAL* control system that was connected to the *REAL* instruments. The signals to the instruments were simulated, but it was a live system. It worked pretty well and allowed us BFI (brute force and ignorance) engineers to get paid for a digital control system development on a nuclear power plant without having to pay big bucks to interface and program a real-time operating system. And, incidently, the digital controller is still in use today and the regulators approved the system.
As author of the petetion (Well, not that there really is a "petetion" persay), I feel I need to clarify this point.
I have been in correspondance with a former Symantec/Quarterdeck employee who was talking with an internal contact, who said:
Got an answer to your request for DV(/X) to be made [Public Domain]: no.
The long and the short of it was "for the time and effort needed to release these as PD products, how does Symantec benefit other than from a feeling of goodwill from some users?". Essentially, they want a dollar-amount specified to quantify how SYMC can benefit from freeing these products.
When presented with the argument that "No "time and effort" on Symantec's part would be involved, other than signing off on a statement releasing them to the public domain, just as Lineo has done with CP/M.", the internal contact repied:
You missed my point. That's part of the problem in that it has to be approved by the PM, the Group PM, the division VP, and legal. Since there's no money in it for Symantec, or any big benefit, they're not going to do it. The CP/M example works for a small company. Symantec isn't small.
I think that the best chance to have something DVX-like is to join Amos Vryhof's project listed elsewhere on this forum.
I used Desqview (not /X) for its multitasking capabilities to run a BBS. Worked like a charm. It was a truly multitasking OS way before Windows 95.
{{.sig}}
People also forget that "releasing the source code" entails a pass through it to clean up bad code, no-ops, and, particularly, comments. How many times have you looked though the source code to something and seen comments like:
/* Warning - *MASSIVE* kludge below */
or
/* I had to do it this way because Fred was too
*&^%$ lazy to code for this in the base
libraries */
Companies don't want customers to see this kind of thing, even in ten year old codebases. Even for companies who are willing to release their old binaries, it's hard to justify the time it takes to clean up the source code for release. Personally, I think Borland deserves kudos for treating this as abandonware and releasing the binaries. Let's hope more companies follow suit.
"Can't you see that everyone is buying station wagons?"
That's 'cause there is so much weird stuff for DOS. One needed most of it to be even half way productive.
Well, my old BBS had only one line, but I ran it under DESQview on top of DR DOS 6 on a 286 and then on a 386SX. It never so much as hiccuped (except when the power supply started acting up). I went through a couple of BBS packages before settling on Maximus for the BBS itself and Opus for connecting to Fight-O-Net. Both were free (as in beer) and fairly customizable. With DESQview, I could have the BBS up while I read messages through an offline reader or transferred files to/from my Apple II.
DESQview ruled. OS/2 was pretty decent (snagged a free copy of v3.0 at Fall Comdex '94), but IBM succeeded at snatching failure from the jaws of victory.
20 January 2017: the End of an Error.
Renegade ... 'nuff said
EOM
Why would Slashdot users be so credulous? a) Why would they believe that Symantec would release DESQview/X (or any other Quarterdeck product) into the public domain? b) Why would they not check the Symantec site for a press release or any other information for any suggestion or evidence that this rumour is true? c) Why would they not bother to check the link at which the code allegedly resides to see if there's relationship there to Symantec? d) Why would they not do a WHOIS search on the cjb.net to see if they're linked to Symantec? All the reminiscences have been fun (accurate or not; not even Gary Pope's nephew got it right--DESQview/X could indeed run Standard Mode Windows programs on a DV/X machine, and better yet turned those Windows programs into X clients, allowing the user to sit at any box on the network and access any app s/he liked), but why are we so eager to discuss what is or isn't public domain, what does or doesn't constitute multitasking, and what does or doesn't constitute open source when the initial post was bullshit anyway? Aren't we supposed to be sophisticated, discerning, and clear-thinking boys and girls here? I'll give a souvenir copy of the DV manual to the first person that can demonstrate that Symantec has done anything at all with DESQview/Anything other than to bury it as deeply as possible in its corporate basement suite with the crazy uncle. ---Michael B. (ex-Quarterdeck)
screen(1) needs to have rectangular regions like
desqview (not dv/x) had. It would also be quite
nice to be able to map "{alt}{alt}" to switch tasks,
and there are probably a few other things that would
be nice that I can't think of right now.
But to me, being able to setup all my windows in
various rectangles of a console would be GREAT, and
is the main feature missing from screen.
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
Do I know you? If so, you are remembering sideways. The mike was on an SGI machine, we did evesdropping from DV/X bozes. Much more fun was the SGI with its mike on in the board room.
-- your Web browser is Ronald Reagan
Yeah, wasn't it great to spend hours working on RIP graphics only to figure out that there was exactly 1 person on your board willing to go through the hassle to use them? Not to mention that ASCII graphics were a much. much faster way to get around the board. Can't waste those precious connect minutes!
Why?
According to the owner of the site refered to in the article:
The story is spurious. Misleading. False. Symantec haven't released the binaries as public domain.
Come on Slashdot, you can do better than that. At least an offical acknowledgement that you've run a misleading story is in order...
... as threats to the "Homeland".
n/t
Sig goes here
> Set up a bunch of 486s, or P-Is running DV/X,
> give them each a Gnome or KDE desktop running
> on some other server, and let people surf, or
> whatever. One high power machine, lots of
> terminals.
That's a good idea, but how in the world are you supposed to network these machines? That free open-source version of Novell Netware? [Blink?]
Does anybody know of any free Ethernet TCP/IP networking software (with NIC drivers!) for MS-DOS or FreeDOS or DR-DOS? Because this could open the door to having a bunch of cheap MS-DOS-based X terminals... definitely a conversation piece for geeks. I think I already know a few dumpsters with 486s for me to rescue...
[Reminiscing: I remember I could only run regular DesqView on my old 486SX/25 with 4mb RAM, but my friend with his DX2-66 (!) and 16mb RAM (!!) could run DesqView/X and I was SO JEALOUS. It looked like the future of the PC (even though DV/X was already outdated)... that great X GUI of Linux, in only 8 megs of RAM, on MS-DOS! And so fast! But alas... it never caught on... so I bought an Amiga]
This is a Win16/Win32 X-Window Server that came on 5 floppy disk set. It would run on Win3.1 & Windows for Workgroups 3.11 (besides Win95). And it came with tons of decent features:
- X11R6 Compliant
- Local or Remote Window Managers
- 24 bit color
- Virtual Screens (would like that Rooted or Rootless)
- Cut and Paste between Windows & X-Windows
- Print output from local Windows Printer
Too bad Symantic hasn't released this into the Public Domain. It's a very reasonable X-Windows Server.The other alternative for small X Servers is to go with MI/X or WeirdX (Java X Server)
Later, Markus
You are right about the SGI box - too many brain cells dead since then. Every time I make it back to LA, I somehow always end up driving by 150 pico. It hasn't changed all that much. :)
Yeah, right.
According to this screenshot DESKview/X ran Win3.1 Apps in a rooted style, with the win3.1 Desktop in one Window on the X server.