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by randombits0 1661 days ago
Well, it was all about exploiting the memory management features of the 80386. DesqView was an interface to new hardware architecture that supported multi-tasking the old model, DOS with all it’s memory hacks, exceptionally well. It was a natural for running the hell out of current model, but it was doomed to fail to more sophisticated OS products that would exploit the same power.

DesqView/X was the same product bundled with some very good X server/client components. Think of it as an X client as well as a local system manager running any x86 component.

The shit was really ahead of it’s time.

Edit: Oh, you asked about resource requirements. Yes, and yes. Fortunately, DOS binaries aren’t large, but it’s all relative.