X server for original PC (8088/8086)

Glen Slick glen.slick at gmail.com
Fri Aug 19 17:22:20 CDT 2016


On Fri, Aug 19, 2016 at 2:54 PM, Chris Hanson
<cmhanson at eschatologist.net> wrote:
>>
>> The only thing that comes to mind is DESQview/X, and IIRC, that required a minimum of a 386.
>
> There was plenty more than DESQview/X, and there were X11 servers that ran on 286.
>

There was PC DECwindows which ran on a 286 system on top of a Rational
Systems DOS extender, and on a 386 or better system on top of a Phar
Lap DOS extender. Those were based on ports of X11R2 - X11R4 source in
the 1988-1989 time frame. By then there was no thought of trying to
fit any sort of implementation in a real mode 8088 system.

(Working on PC DECwindows was my first real job out of college)


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