My interest in DOS Retrocomputing (and, in fact, in Retrocomputing generally) began with the practical challenge of rehabilitating a collegue's semi-functional museum-piece: a Zenith 8088 (equipped, paradoxically, with a ripping-fast LAN  connection and half-gig hard disk). I soon discovered that, while lots of people at EIU had new(er) Macs or PCs, about as many were getting by with 8088s or 286s.  What was so unfortunate about this was how these old computers were used -- or unused. Computing under these conditions typically consisted of telnetting for email, and perhaps some word processing.  This was especially regrettable, because life with an old DOS box can be very productive, and even fairly enjoyable -- as long as you have decent tools. Since your typical 8088 isn't going to sprout a faster processor or more memory anytime soon, making the most of the situation boils down to finding the best software compatible with the slow, limited computing powers at hand.  While I currently use somewhat newer computers (486DX2, turned into a Pentium 133, w/Win95 and Linux at home; a G3 Macs w/OS8.1 and VirtualPC 95 in the office [for a while], and currently a Pentium II with NT 4.0 [to replace the Mac]), I've checked out lots of freeware and shareware that will run on very slow, old computers with monochrome (no-color) screens.  These web pages lay out the best software resources I've found for tricking out the humble 8088 and 286.