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Visi On : The failed 1983 graphical desktop that came before Windows or Macintosh
From the legendary company behind VisiCalc
September 03, 2023
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Before Microsoft Windows (heck, even before the original Macintosh)… there was 1983’s Visi On.

From the company that brought us the ground-breaking VisiCalc spreadsheet software, Visi On was a full graphical desktop environment for IBM compatible PCs. Historically, it is a pretty big deal.

Did it last beyond the first version? Well… No.

Microsoft saw the awesomeness of Visi On and fought it by pre-announcing that the first version of Windows — which would be cheaper than Visi On — was set to ship just a few months later (which it was never going to… but the announcement cut Visi On sales for sure). And Apple began making a huge splash with the Macintosh unveiling.

On top of the fierce (dare I say, brutal) competition… the company behind Visi On (VisiCorp) was busy tearing itself apart internally. Some of their team leaving the company and launching Lotus 1-2-3, a new spreadsheet program that would prove to be hugely popular and almost totally destroyed sales of VisiCorp’s cash cow, VisiCalc.

Visi On, as a graphical desktop system, was doomed to fail. Right out of the gate.

So many of us — myself included — never really got the chance to use and enjoy this early attempt at a graphical PC desktop. Which is a shame, considering how historically significant the system and company are.

With that in mind, here is a visual walkthrough of what Visi On looks like, feels like, and how it works.

When launched this is the default Visi On display. Monochrome, CGA graphics. Also, you’ll note there are no application, file, or toolbar icons. Visi On, despite being graphical, is a very text-focused interface.

That “Services” window acts as the application launcher. Click on an item in the list to launch that piece of software.

This system, in many ways, doesn’t work quite like most other GUI’s. It’s a bit… well… funky.

Luckily there’s a tutorial to walk you through how to use a mouse (which most people hadn’t used back then)… then through how to work with applications and windows.

Note that we now have two, overlapping, differently sized applications running at the same time (Services and Tutorial, in this case). In 1983 on standard PCs. XTs with 512k of RAM. This did require a 5MB hard drive (which was not hugely common at that time) in order to accomplish.

Scrolling is one of the more odd things in Visi On. There are no scroll bars. You scroll by right clicking on an area that needs scrolling… then dragging. It is, in many ways, a precursor to the “swipe to scroll” of touch screens.

What’s really wild, is this right-click dragging also works on the text “toolbars / menus” at the bottom of the windows. If the application window is too narrow to show all of the text options, you can right click and drag that menu/toolbar from side to side to see (and click) all of the options.

Seriously. You can scroll a menu. Horizontally. It’s wild.

You’ll also note that there aren’t any window buttons. Close, maximize, minimize, etc. Nothing like that here.

In order to “close” a window, you click on the “CLOSE” text button down on the bottom of the screen. It will then ask you “Close which window?” Then click on the window you wish to “close”.

I put “close” in quotes… as you are actually minimizing the window in modern terms. Simply making it invisible. When you click “OPEN” you then select from a list of windows in the top corner of the screen that you wish to make visible again.

Another odd bit: You can’t click and drag on a window to move it around the screen. There are also no “window borders” you can click and drag on in order to resize the windows.

What you can do is click on the “FRAME” text option down on the bottom of the screen. Then you click on the window you wish to re-draw the frame for.

Then you click on where you want the top left corner of that window to be… then where you want the bottom right corner of the window to be. Then the screen redraws with that window in the new location and shape.

At first this is incredibly cumbersome. But, after playing with it for a while, it becomes only moderately cumbersome.

Now let’s talk about some of the key Visi On software, starting with the word processor: Visi On Word.

When you first launch it, you are asked to name the window (not the file… the window). You can then “create” or “revise” a document.

Creating a new document results in a presenting to you a surprisingly powerful WYSIWYG word processor. Performance is even fairly good when typing (very little lag).

The toolbar along the bottom is… strange. You’ll note that capitalization seems almost entirely random. Some options all lower case, others have some capital letters. And the whole toolbar only really fits if you make the window full screen (by clicking the “FULL” option on the bottom of the screen, then clicking on the word processor window). So you end up needing to right click scroll the toolbar quite a bit.

The “Calc” software, likewise, is a surprisingly good spreadsheet program for the time. It is, essentially, a Visi On graphical incarnation of the company's popular VisiCalc… but not quite.

In that screenshot, we’re running Word, Calc, and Services (the launcher). All at once, with overlapping, resized windows. Once again, this was on an XT system with half a meg of RAM. Pretty darned impressive.

Of course, at this point, performance starts to suffer significantly. Running just one program at a time resulted in pretty reasonable performance. Once three are running? Oh, boy. Sluggish would be an understatement.

Every piece of software has a set of application options that can be accessed by clicking on the ever-present “OPTIONS” at the bottom of the screen, then clicking on the window you wish to adjust the options for.

This results in a sort of “options sidebar” opening up on the right hand side of that window with a list of text based options that you select with your mouse. And, almost always, it requires a lot of right-click scrolling to access it all.

This is what the equivalent of a “File Open” or “File Save” dialog is within Visi On. It’s… functional. A bit odd, but functional.

I mean, look at that “done.” toolbar option on the bottom right of that window above. It has a period after it. Just so many weird little things like that throughout the system. The only thing consistent about the UI of Visi On is the inconsistency.

All-in-all, Visi On is absolutely, 100% functional and usable. And, honestly, darned impressive. Especially considering the hardware limitations on the system.

Aesthetically, it’s not all that terrible either! I mean, sure. There’s a heck of a lot of room for improvement. And it’s got some ridiculously clunky parts.

But for a 1.0 release of something that nobody had ever done before on XT hardware with 512k? And using only a CGA display? Color me impressed.

Where would Visi On have gone had the company not torn itself in half due to in-fighting between teams and management (and if the product had simply sold better)? It could have been interesting to see!

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https://lunduke.locals.com/post/4619051/lunduke-journal-link-central-tm

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September 13, 2023
"Andreas Kling creator of Serenity OS & Ladybird Web Browser" - Lunduke’s Big Tech Show - September 13th, 2023 - Ep 044

This episode is free for all to enjoy and share.

Be sure to subscribe here at Lunduke.Locals.com to get all shows & articles (including interviews with other amazing nerds).

"Andreas Kling creator of Serenity OS & Ladybird Web Browser" - Lunduke’s Big Tech Show - September 13th, 2023 - Ep 044

Meme of the year

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playing with gnome shell extensions, does anyone know how to get the cube sides to snap together to look like a cube... thanks in advance :)

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This was shared with me the other day

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October 15, 2025
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The Unpublished Anti-Lunduke Hit-Piece
A Tech Journalist interviewed me for a hit-piece article. But the questions made them look bad, and they shelved the story. So I'm publishing their hit-piece for them.

Back in September, shortly after the assassination of Charlie Kirk, I was contacted by a Tech Journalist writing for FossForce.com (a smaller, Open Source focused publication) who was working on an article around Open Source, Antifa, and the Lunduke Journal’s coverage of those topics.

This particular outlet had, several months prior, run an “anti-Lunduke” hit piece without first reaching out for comment — which resulted in their most popular article (at least on social media) in quite some time.

With that in mind, it seemed reasonable that they’d want to repeat that success with another “anti-Lunduke” story.

This time they were doing the responsible thing. They reached out to the subject of the hit-piece article with questions. I like encouraging Tech Journalists when they do actual journalism, so I answered each and every query with easy-to-quote responses.

But, it would appear that the answers they received were not conducive to creating the hit-piece they were hoping for — my guess is they realized their questions made them look like the villain in the story. The villain they, clearly, hoped to portray me as.

They opted to not publish the piece.

So I’m publishing their hit-piece for them.

Below is every question — and every answer (with no edits) — which I was asked, on September 19th, by a Tech Journalist by the name of Christine Hall, writing for FossForce.

Fair warning: This is very, very politically charged.

Enjoy.


September 19th

Hall:

The last time I mentioned you in an article, you castigated me for not reaching out to you beforehand. Well, I’m reaching out now. We’ll see what comes of this.

You do recognize that the vast majority of organizations using the term antifa as a descriptor are not in the least bit terrorist and pose no threat to society -- and indeed, the only threats they might pose to fascist groups are not physical or life-harming?

Lunduke:

Hello Christine! Nice to hear from you!

Many, if not most, of those proclaiming support for Antifa (within Open Source) have also made statements encouraging or supporting violence and discrimination.

Regardless of that fact -- which I have documented extensively in Lunduke Journal coverage -- when violent acts are committed (such as murder, riots, and lynchings) in the name of “Antifa”, to turn around and immediately declare yourself to be “Antifa” is a clear declaration of support of that violence.

Hall:

And why did you feel it necessary to call out Danielle Foré’s [the founder of the elementary OS Linux Distribution] trans status in such an ugly manner?

Lunduke:

There is a noteworthy overlap between “Trans activism” and support for political violence -- including in the recent murder of Charlie Kirk (the murderer’s boyfriend was “Trans”).

In the case of Daniel Fore, he, a leader of an Open Source project, regularly calls for discrimination (and violence) against people he disagrees with -- often in conjunction with his self-declaration as “Trans”.

Thus, his declaration of being “Trans” becomes a part of the overall story.

It is worth noting here that The Lunduke Journal has never -- and would never -- call for discrimination or violence against someone because of how they identify or who they may (or may not) vote for.

This is in stark contrast those, such as Mr. Fore, who consider themselves “Trans” or “Antifa” -- who actively advocate for both discrimination and violence.

Hall:

Mentioning a person’s trans status in ways that are pertinent to your argument necessates rudeness such as calling her a “dude who likes to wear dresses”?

Lunduke:

Dan Fore is, in fact, a dude who likes to wear dresses.

The only reason to view that as a negative is if you view dudes wearing dresses as a negative.

Hall:

I’ll quote you on that, which I’m pretty sure won’t bother you in the least.

Lunduke:

Absolutely! Quote anything I say here. In fact, I suggest quoting absolutely everything I’ve written to you here, today.

Hall:

You also understand, don’t you, that voicing disagreement with an assessment made by POTUS is not only legal but a healthy part of the national dialog.

Lunduke:

Absolutely! Did I say somewhere that it was illegal to disagree with a politician? It seems unlikely that I have ever said that.

Hall:

Also, how would you reply to this:

There have been very few murders linked to individuals associated with Antifa, some incidents of rioting attributed to Antifa supporters, and no credible evidence of lynchings conducted in the name of Antifa. Compared to far-right groups, violence attributed to Antifa is much less frequent and lethal, with only one suspected kill—Aaron Danielson in Portland, by an anti-fascist activist—officially confirmed in recent U.S. history.

Lunduke:

Murder is bad. I am opposed to all murder.

In the context of these discussions, bearing in mind the Kirk murder is important (as many statements were made in response to it). The murderer of Kirk appears to have been pro-Trans and pro-Antifa (based on all available information).

Hall:

Is there any evidence that the suspect was part of an antifa group? I haven’t seen any.

Lunduke:

I have seen some reporting to this effect (including statements from family and messages he wrote).

But, far more important to this story, is the response to the murder among Antifa supporters (including those within Open Source). A large portion of Antifa supporters have celebrated the murder as justified because it killed someone they considered to be a “fascist”.

Hall:

Also, no group should be held responsible for what some deranged person who identifies with the group has done.

Lunduke:

I agree that a broader group should not be held responsible for the actions of a small number of individuals.

However, and this is critically important, it is entirely appropriate to hold people responsible for their own statements and actions.

With that in mind: The overall messaging of Antifa (and Antifa supporters) tends heavily towards violence. Punching, killing, molotov cocktails, etc. are all common messaging used by Antifa (including by those I quote within the Open Source world -- many of whom have advocated violence against myself).

Advocating for violence, then celebrating when violence is committed, are not good things.

Yet we see a great deal of that among Open Source supporters of Antifa.

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October 13, 2025
Sale ends in a few hours, Lifetime Subs set up.

Holy moly, you guys are amazing.

A few days ago I published a “50% off” sale for Lunduke Journal subscriptions… and all of you showed up. In a big way.

To everyone who grabbed a Lifetime Subscription over the last few days: All of you are set to full Lifetime access. You should have a confirmation email in your inbox. If not, email me and I’ll make sure you’re setup properly.

That “50% off” sale ends tonight at midnight. So you have a few hours to snag a discounted subscription, if you haven’t already.

A huge thank you to everyone who supports this work. Couldn’t do it without you.

-Lunduke

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October 12, 2025
50% Off Lunduke Journal Extended Through Monday (Oct 13th)

Just a quick heads up:

The “50% off every kind of Subscription to The Lunduke Journal” sale has been extended through Monday (October 13th).

So. You know. Grab one at 50% off between now and end of the day on Monday.

To all of you amazing nerds who have picked up a Lifetime Subscription already this weekend: You are awesome. You’ll be receiving a confirmation email, with all of the Lifetime Subscription details, by tomorrow (if you haven’t already).

Oh, and remember how we hit 11 Million views last month? Yeah. We’re well on our way to blowing past those numbers in October.

Wild.

See you all on Monday!

-Lunduke

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