DESQview
More info
- Creator
- Quarterdeck Office Systems
- Released
- 1985
- Type
- DOS multitasking environment
Text-mode multitasking for MS-DOS, years before Windows could do the same thing usefully.
Quarterdeck released DESQview in 1985. It ran ordinary DOS programs side by side in windows, switched between them and let them keep working in the background — a BBS could answer calls while the sysop typed in a word processor. Without a graphical interface it needed no new software, which was the whole point. Paired with the QEMM memory manager, it got far more out of a 386's memory than DOS ever did.
DESQview/X arrived in 1992 with a built-in X server, letting DOS programs and X clients share a screen and a network. It was technically impressive and commercially pointless: Windows 3.1 had already won, and Windows 95 finished the job.