DesqView/X: Night of the Living Dead Codebases

Pazuzues writes "I found something that you could say peaked my interest. It seems Symantec (purchasers of former company Quarterdeck) has release DeskView/X into public domain and can be downloaded now. DesqView/X was a GUI and OS extender that installed into DOS very much like MS Windows does. This little GUI can run X-Windows and MS Windows 3.x software and can even gateway serve MS Windows applications to remote X terminals. It was way ahead of its time and is a pretty decent toy to play with if you have a old 486 laying around. Anyways there is a petition being started that is petitioning Symantec to release the source code as OpenSource. I think this is a really good idea and could possiably help alot of other existing projects like WINE for example. It can load X and rexec X apps with 16mb RAM for Pete sakes!"

No Brainer

[Anonymous Coward]

Really, are there any constructive comments that can be added to this discussion besides "sign the petition!"?

Not to troll, but I think we all know what needs to be done and why it would be a good thing to do it.

My interest was piqued

[Anonymous Coward]

Hi -

Your interest may have been peaked, but mine was piqued :)

TWR

Re:DesqView was really cool.

[garcia]

I used to use it on a 386SX-16 for running a BBS. The footprint was a lot less than Win3.11 and it ran reasonably well on that machine w/5mb of RAM.

At the time the /X meant nothing to me. It just looked cool when the user would login and see the OS listed as Desqview/X ;)

Pazuzues should have written...

[1010011010]

Pazuzues should have written "I found something that you could say piqued my interest. It seems that Symantec (which purchased now-defunct Quarterdeck years ago) has released into the public domain binary versions of DesqView/X. DesqView/X was a GUI and DOS extender that installed over DOS very much like MS Windows did. This little GUI can run X-Windows and MS Windows 3.x software and can even act as gateway to serve MS Windows applications to remote X terminals. It was way ahead of its time and is still a pretty decent toy to play with. It can load X and rexec X apps with 16MB of RAM, for Pete's sake! All it needs is an old 486. A petition has been started to urge Symantec to release the source code under an Open Source license. I think this is a really good idea, as it could possibly help a number of projects, such as WINE. DesqView/X is available for download now."

How much "editing" does being an "editor" involve, anyway? 8^D

Re:A new low

[xah]

I found something that you could say peaked my interest.

The word is "piqued," although here it is used improperly. From M-W, it means "to excite or arouse by a provocation, challenge, or rebuff."

It seems Symantec (purchasers of former company Quarterdeck) has release DeskView/X into public domain and can be downloaded now.

It's "DesqView/X." It's "released." It's "the public domain." It's a run-on sentence.

DesqView/X was a GUI and OS extender that installed into DOS very much like MS Windows does.

Here we have an inconsistent use of tense. The last word should be "did." I wonder what "installed into DOS" could mean.

This little GUI can run X-Windows and MS Windows 3.x software and can even gateway serve MS Windows applications to remote X terminals.

It's either "X" or "X Window System." We have another run-on sentence. I wonder what "gateway serve" is. DesqView/X was both an X client and an X server, I believe. Of course, the X Client is what would run on the DesqView/X machine to be displayed on a remote X Server.

It was way ahead of its time and is a pretty decent toy to play with if you have a old 486 laying around.

Insert a comma after "time." It's "an old 486."

Anyways there is a petition being started that is petitioning Symantec to release the source code as OpenSource.

It's "open source."

I think this is a really good idea and could possiably help alot of other existing projects like WINE for example.

It's "possibly." It's "a lot." Insert a comma after WINE.

It can load X and rexec X apps with 16mb RAM for Pete sakes!

It's usually stated as "for Pete's sake," referring to Saint Peter.

How utterly abominable. What a disservice Slashdot does its readers, acting as its readers were unintelligent, and uncaring about either spelling or grammar. What a disservice Slashdot does to the English language.

Re: Desqview

[jelle]

What a foresight they must have had when they thought of the name, eh?

Re:Dammit!

[pdcull]

So, you're the owner of the site referenced in the article?

Two quick questions:

1. Is your site up now?

2. Do you have anything in writing from Symantec allowing the distribution of the binaries?

Or is the story basically lies, in which case Slashdot has just turned into the biggest warez site on the web.