{"slug": "desqview", "name": "DESQview", "category": "os", "category_name": "Operating systems and desktop", "description": "", "recommenders": 4, "commenters": 6, "warners": 0, "score": 4.103, "rising": -1.31, "first": "2026-03-12", "latest": "2026-07-17", "why": "I don't remember ever having any problems with it.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 5, "neutral": 2, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 0, 3, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "I don't remember ever having any problems with it.", "kind": "", "icon": false, "domain": "wikipedia.org", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["DESQview"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 783122128, "item_id": 48945133, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48945133", "by": "aa-jv", "date": "2026-07-17", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I used Quarterdeck Desqview to provide multi-user capabilities on my (then) super-charged 486", "excerpt": "In that era (87/88'ish) I used Quarterdeck Desqview to provide multi-user capabilities on my (then) super-charged 486: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DESQview It was possible to wire things up so that multiple users could connect to a separate Desqview instance and have their own local user context, albeit an MSDOS one .. it was quite functional as a multi-user system for a few years until I got on minix-list and hear", "context": "", "use_case": "multi-user capability on DOS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Starlink from 1984"}, {"id": 773879249, "item_id": 48367453, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48367453", "by": "geocar", "date": "2026-06-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It had a \"learn\" feature that allowed you to record and playback even DOS programs", "excerpt": "> as such they are composable in the sense that they can be used in a way the author(s) didn't think of. It's been a while since I've done any of that personally, I do this all the time. One of my favourite applications is a tool called \"autoexpect\" and I use it every time I try a new program. What it does is this: I run a program in it's virtual terminal, and it writes a TCL script that does what I did, and puts lit", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "strace-ui, Bonsai_term, and the TUI renaissance"}, {"id": 760238256, "item_id": 47514891, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47514891", "by": "aa-jv", "date": "2026-03-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "until I got Quarterdeck Desqview set up", "excerpt": "I used that DOSSHELL method for a while until I got Quarterdeck Desqview set up - and from that point on, to me DOS was nothing more than a terminal interface to my pizzabox. Sure would've been nice if the Desqview engineers and the GEM guys could've merged their efforts...", "context": "", "use_case": "Multitasking on DOS", "switched_from": "DOSSHELL", "story": "What Happened to Gem?"}, {"id": 757757600, "item_id": 47359850, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47359850", "by": "driverdan", "date": "2026-03-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I don't remember ever having any problems with it.", "excerpt": "I used DESQview with my BBS. It only had one line but I ran a second local node so I could be online at the same time as my users. I don't remember ever having any problems with it.", "context": "ran a BBS", "use_case": "BBS multitasking", "switched_from": "", "story": "An old photo of a large BBS"}, {"id": 757712496, "item_id": 47357031, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47357031", "by": "throw0101d", "date": "2026-03-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I don't recall DESQview to be all that crashy.", "excerpt": "> It's possible they managed to do some rudimentary multitasking with DESQview (or worse...) and so supported two whole users with each box. Does that mean they had to be at least 386s to do protected mode? Or was it virtual 8086 mode? I (fortunately) have forgotten the finer points of how that stuff used to work. I DO remember how damn crashy a box became when you ran it \"under DV\". Constant system freezes. Yep. I d", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "An old photo of a large BBS"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [{"by": "driverdan", "context": "ran a BBS", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47359850", "date": "2026-03-12"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["multi-user capability on dos", "multitasking on dos", "bbs multitasking"], "compared": [{"slug": "linux", "name": "Linux", "co": 1, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47356017", "title": "An old photo of a large BBS", "mentions": 3}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48876811", "title": "Starlink from 1984", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48458890", "title": "GentleOS \u2013 Classic operating system with a lovely retro GUI", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48365904", "title": "strace-ui, Bonsai_term, and the TUI renaissance", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47461766", "title": "What Happened to Gem?", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 1}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {"recommend": 1, "neutral": 1}, "2026-07": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 783122128, "item_id": 48945133, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48945133", "by": "aa-jv", "date": "2026-07-17", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I used Quarterdeck Desqview to provide multi-user capabilities on my (then) super-charged 486", "excerpt": "In that era (87/88'ish) I used Quarterdeck Desqview to provide multi-user capabilities on my (then) super-charged 486: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DESQview It was possible to wire things up so that multiple users could connect to a separate Desqview instance and have their own local user context, albeit an MSDOS one .. it was quite functional as a multi-user system for a few years until I got on minix-list and hear", "context": "", "use_case": "multi-user capability on DOS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Starlink from 1984"}, {"id": 775399970, "item_id": 48462498, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48462498", "by": "lproven", "date": "2026-06-09", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "with one of these OSes, or even with Quarterdeck DESQview", "excerpt": "> it's quite a feat to fit this into 4 MB on a 386. I had 2 different Librex 386SX laptops, with 4MB of RAM, on long-term loan from work around 1992. One was quite chunky, the 2nd was a slimline thing with an off-centre hinge. I ran OS/2 2.0 on them both. So I could run multiple DOS apps, and a WinOS2 VM containing Windows 3.0, meaning I could run Win16 apps as well. And native OS/2 apps, although I didn't have many.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "GentleOS \u2013 Classic operating system with a lovely retro GUI"}, {"id": 773879249, "item_id": 48367453, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48367453", "by": "geocar", "date": "2026-06-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It had a \"learn\" feature that allowed you to record and playback even DOS programs", "excerpt": "> as such they are composable in the sense that they can be used in a way the author(s) didn't think of. It's been a while since I've done any of that personally, I do this all the time. One of my favourite applications is a tool called \"autoexpect\" and I use it every time I try a new program. What it does is this: I run a program in it's virtual terminal, and it writes a TCL script that does what I did, and puts lit", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "strace-ui, Bonsai_term, and the TUI renaissance"}, {"id": 760238256, "item_id": 47514891, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47514891", "by": "aa-jv", "date": "2026-03-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "until I got Quarterdeck Desqview set up", "excerpt": "I used that DOSSHELL method for a while until I got Quarterdeck Desqview set up - and from that point on, to me DOS was nothing more than a terminal interface to my pizzabox. Sure would've been nice if the Desqview engineers and the GEM guys could've merged their efforts...", "context": "", "use_case": "Multitasking on DOS", "switched_from": "DOSSHELL", "story": "What Happened to Gem?"}, {"id": 757764000, "item_id": 47360250, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47360250", "by": "userbinator", "date": "2026-03-12", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "It's possible they managed to do some rudimentary multitasking with DESQview", "excerpt": "It's possible they managed to do some rudimentary multitasking with DESQview (or worse...) There were even hypervisors available, such as VM/386: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VM/386 https://virtuallyfun.com/2023/06/13/re-visiting-vm-386/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "An old photo of a large BBS"}, {"id": 757757600, "item_id": 47359850, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47359850", "by": "driverdan", "date": "2026-03-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I don't remember ever having any problems with it.", "excerpt": "I used DESQview with my BBS. It only had one line but I ran a second local node so I could be online at the same time as my users. I don't remember ever having any problems with it.", "context": "ran a BBS", "use_case": "BBS multitasking", "switched_from": "", "story": "An old photo of a large BBS"}, {"id": 757712496, "item_id": 47357031, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47357031", "by": "throw0101d", "date": "2026-03-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I don't recall DESQview to be all that crashy.", "excerpt": "> It's possible they managed to do some rudimentary multitasking with DESQview (or worse...) and so supported two whole users with each box. Does that mean they had to be at least 386s to do protected mode? Or was it virtual 8086 mode? I (fortunately) have forgotten the finer points of how that stuff used to work. I DO remember how damn crashy a box became when you ran it \"under DV\". Constant system freezes. Yep. I d", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "An old photo of a large BBS"}]}