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0 pointsryandrake4y ago0 comments

Not if you used DESQview [1]. I think everyone serious about BBSing used DESQview to multitask in DOS. Then along came DESQview/X...

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DESQview

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7 comments · 4 top-level

GekkePrutser4y ago· 3 in thread

Yeah DESQview was interesting but you couldn't do everything in it because most serious programs would need all the resources of the computer, or they'd interfere with the IRQ assignments, leading to many crashes.

We're talking a time before even as much as cooperative multitasking of course. DESQview was multitasking programs that were not even meant for it.

Most people I knew didn't use it for that reason. If I really wanted to multitask while BBS'ing I'd just grab my Amiga I had beside the PC (which in itself actually had a real pre-emptive multitasking OS in ROM!).

There were a few programs that could do something else while a download was happening, like Telemate. It gave you at least a text editor and a file manager IIRC.

jboy554y ago

I did all my BBSing with my Amiga 500. I don't think I ever dared do too much multitasking while I was downloading. First, had to download to RAM:, because if you did something that involved disk, you could get a timeout. If you messed up the transfer, and you got disconnected, then you'd have to try and redial to get back on, which could take hours.

GekkePrutser4y ago

This is true... Disk access on Amiga was pretty crap, indeed. Often causing errors. And a HDD was super expensive so I didn't have one (just like a floppy drive was in the 8-bit age)

To be honest I didn't do much downloading at all in those days.. Just didn't have the patience for it. If I did do it I would do so over packet radio that I could just leave running all night. I had a third old PC just for that :)

Another reason that I didn't BBS much on my Amiga was that my modem was inside my PC on an ISA card for most of the time I used BBS'es. So I had to run a program on the PC to forward the modem data over a null-modem to the Amiga so either way I couldn't use the PC. So usually my PC was for modem use and the Amiga for other stuff.

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thanatos5194y ago

I had an original IBM PC and I wrote most of my high school essays in Telemate's text editor. :)

throw0101a4y ago

Don't forget QEMM.

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QEMM

timbit424y ago

I ran an Amiga BBS so had no issues with multitasking but a friend ran a DOS BBS so I lent him my copy of OS/2 Warp so he could use his computer while the BBS was running.

StanislavPetrov4y ago

BBSing with an Atari 800 and a rotary phone at 300 baud was a whole other animal!

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