Dave Ihnat wrote: > On Tue, Jan 02, 2007 at 11:18:31AM -0600, Mikkel L. Ellertson wrote: >> There are some X terminal packages that will run on an XT. ... > > More appropriately, there are X server packages that run under DOS. > (And before someone pops up with a correction, everything through Windows > 3.x was just DOS with some eye candy.) > > BUT: > >> ... If I remember correctly, most of the X terminal programs ran on >> top of DOS. > > Oh, but you so do NOT want to go there. Since DOS doesn't support TCP/IP, > there was a horrible rats-nest of third-party TCP/IP suites that went with > getting X to work. Some were better than others, but all were commercial > (read: proprietary and liensed), and almost all were cranky and fragile > by today's standards. This would not be a good thing to do to end users. > > And, as has been pointed out, all modern Unix/Linux versions require > at least a 386. (I briefly used a version of Unix called "Venix" many > moons ago--it ran on a 286 box, but had absolutely no memory protection. > You don't want to know what that was like.) > The X terminal packages were more then just the X server - they also included the TCP/IP stack. You still needed the NIC drivers, but the stack would talk to the NDIS drivers... If I remember correctly, you could run Deskview X on a 286 machine. It also came with a TCP/IP stack. (It was an optional install.) I played with both Deskview and Deskview X on a 386 machine. I still have the floppy images somewhere, but I lost the activation keys. (I am not sure if I still have the origional disks, but I remember burning the disk images to a CD-ROM.) Wasn't there also a package for PCs that was a stand alone X terminal package? it booted in place of DOS. I sort of remember something like that, but I am not sure. I think it was a commercial package, and out of my budget just to play with... Mikkel -- Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy and taste good with Ketchup!
