3 ms·

Not necessarily. DOS multi-taskers like DESQview and TopView existed. You didn't even need a 386.

• joezydeco 7mo ago
  Okay, but what did you use for a multiuser backend database back then? One that could handle multiple threads reading and writing to it? A lot of these old BBS systems were just slapping together endless directories of flat text files.
  • icedchai 7mo ago
    DOS / Desqview support filesystem locking with "share.exe." Honestly I am not sure how well this worked, but I knew guys who ran multi-line BBSes under DOS and Desqview (and later OS/2) without issue. Even with multiple PCs you would also have similar "shared filesystem" issues. You'd need some sort of fileserver and a shared, network drive. Novell was popular at the time.
    • Suppafly 7mo ago
      My town had a couple of guys that ran Amiga BBSs