> I remember running DesqView ... it must have been on a 286 (is that possible?), I Yes. In fact, I once ran it on an original 4.77MHz 8088. Just as an experi

> I remember running DesqView ... it must have been on a 286 (is that possible?), I Yes. In fact, I once ran it on an original 4.77MHz 8088. Just as an experiment, I ran two copies of BASICA in two separate windows. The two interpreters ran in parallel, and thanks to DesqView's lack of memory protection, it was possible to send data from one to the other via a simple form of shared memory IPC. (DEF SEG to pick a common memory segment between the two, and POKE/PEEK to send/receive data.) The trouble with the 8088/286 class machines was really the lack of memory to run multiple applications and the fact that most serious DOS code assumed direct hardware access. Both of these made useful multitasking difficult. DesqView/386 fixed this by using QEMM to run the 386 in protected mode. This gave access to much more memory (if you could afford it), as well as memory protection and V86 multitasking. Fixed most of the significant issues with smaller systems.