At this point, it starts WIN86.COM (loaded by WIN386.EXE) to start a real-mode copy of Windows in the first VM, otherwise known as the “System VM”.
The DOS-based Windows lineage is definitely very interesting to study and a large contrast to more "normal" operating systems like Linux or NT, because they're actually hypervisors running a VM; and their whole userspace is essentially based around an extended DOS (protected mode) application.
From there, it checks if the resident protected-mode software is a memory manager that it recognizes
What's noteworthy is that EMM386 is also a hypervisor, albeit a very thin one. One could imagine an alternate reality in which x86 gained full virtualisation extensions earlier, causing the hypervisor model to be taken even further and creating a bigger architecture gap between Windows and other OSes.
The DOS-based Windows lineage is definitely very interesting to study and a large contrast to more "normal" operating systems like Linux or NT, because they're actually hypervisors running a VM; and their whole userspace is essentially based around an extended DOS (protected mode) application.
From there, it checks if the resident protected-mode software is a memory manager that it recognizes
What's noteworthy is that EMM386 is also a hypervisor, albeit a very thin one. One could imagine an alternate reality in which x86 gained full virtualisation extensions earlier, causing the hypervisor model to be taken even further and creating a bigger architecture gap between Windows and other OSes.