4 ms·

I used to work for Lotus, supporting 1-2-3. Mucking around with autoexec.bat, config.sys, emm386 etc to get 1-2-3 to load was fun. Lots of TSRs using up memory

by gadders 7mo ago

I used to work for Lotus, supporting 1-2-3. Mucking around with autoexec.bat, config.sys, emm386 etc to get 1-2-3 to load was fun. Lots of TSRs using up memory. The amount of times I had to tell people to create a "clean config" by commenting out most of autoexec.bat... We also had to post people floppy disks with the correct printer driver on. No downloads in those days. "What would a piece of software have to do today to make you cheer and applaud upon seeing a demo?" I was at LotusSphere when Lotus Notes 4 was announced and demo-ed. That got a standing ovation.

bell-cot 7mo ago
> No downloads in those days. For the 1% with the required hardware, was there a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulletin_board_system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulletin_board_system ?
- gadders 7mo ago
  There might have been, but I don't think I ever needed to give it out or was asked for it.
- kjs3 7mo ago
  CompuServ was used more for corporate software downloads in those days than a BBS. Companies generally don't want to rely on some random person with an extra phone line in the basement for product support; CompuServ was 'corporate BBS' and owned by H&R Block, so had biz cred. Driver downloads were pretty much the reason I had a CompuServ account, since we had a bunch of otherwise great local BBS for the other on-line things I cared about back then. That said...files from Compuserv usually ended up on some BBS somewhere eventually, and FidoNet let you get them if they weren't on your local BBS. Maybe...if you could find them.
  - bell-cot 7mo ago
    > ... some random person with an extra phone line ... True. I was thinking of Ashton-Tate's IT operating an "official" BBS system. OTOH, A-T might have gotten an extremely good deal from CompuServ, due to the cred they'd have brought it.
    - kjs3 7mo ago
      Oh sure...some companies had their own setup. I think one of the disk drive manufacturers had their own BBS (Western Digital?). But I think most companies looking into this kind of service saw the Compuserv infrastructure (in particular, all the ways to access it...dial, X.25, leased line, etc., with huge numbers of local PoPs) and said "I'll take that because building ourselves it would suck". And...there was a time between this and "Internet for all the things", when for consumers, AOL was the place to get drivers and such. But that's an even farther digression from the BBS topic (other than to point out AOL started out with BBS software).
mito88 7mo ago
and 10base2.... :)
bombcar 7mo ago
I remember making floppies with customized autoexec.bat and config.sys and telling users "put this floppy in and reboot if you want to do X" (usually a game, but sometimes a big program). DOS 6 added menus in config.sys IIRC that removed the need for this.

by gadders 7mo ago

bell-cot 7mo ago

> No downloads in those days. For the 1% with the required hardware, was there a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulletin_board_system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulletin_board_system ?

gadders 7mo ago
There might have been, but I don't think I ever needed to give it out or was asked for it.
kjs3 7mo ago
CompuServ was used more for corporate software downloads in those days than a BBS. Companies generally don't want to rely on some random person with an extra phone line in the basement for product support; CompuServ was 'corporate BBS' and owned by H&R Block, so had biz cred. Driver downloads were pretty much the reason I had a CompuServ account, since we had a bunch of otherwise great local BBS for the other on-line things I cared about back then. That said...files from Compuserv usually ended up on some BBS somewhere eventually, and FidoNet let you get them if they weren't on your local BBS. Maybe...if you could find them.
- bell-cot 7mo ago
  > ... some random person with an extra phone line ... True. I was thinking of Ashton-Tate's IT operating an "official" BBS system. OTOH, A-T might have gotten an extremely good deal from CompuServ, due to the cred they'd have brought it.
  - kjs3 7mo ago
    Oh sure...some companies had their own setup. I think one of the disk drive manufacturers had their own BBS (Western Digital?). But I think most companies looking into this kind of service saw the Compuserv infrastructure (in particular, all the ways to access it...dial, X.25, leased line, etc., with huge numbers of local PoPs) and said "I'll take that because building ourselves it would suck". And...there was a time between this and "Internet for all the things", when for consumers, AOL was the place to get drivers and such. But that's an even farther digression from the BBS topic (other than to point out AOL started out with BBS software).

mito88 7mo ago

and 10base2.... :)

bombcar 7mo ago

I remember making floppies with customized autoexec.bat and config.sys and telling users "put this floppy in and reboot if you want to do X" (usually a game, but sometimes a big program). DOS 6 added menus in config.sys IIRC that removed the need for this.