Display problems with old laptops

I am in the process of trying to pick a software controller. I
downloaded all the demos I could find, but was dissapointed when I
couldn't get DeskNC up on my older 486/386 laptops.
Does anyone know how to make DeskNC VGA compatible?
I read alot about CNCpro on here as well, how do they compare? The
problem is that I can't hardly get Mr. Yeager's demo configured before
it times out on me. It's really hard to tell how it's going to work.
Any help?