Digression to old CP/M discussion

- added "make bootable" script and syslinux for Linux clients

 

At long last - acknowledgement that not everyone has a machine running Microsoft (or even Apple)!

When can we expect a CP/M version ?

- added "make bootable" script and syslinux for Linux clients

 

At long last - acknowledgement that not everyone has a machine running Microsoft (or even Apple)!

 

When can we expect a CP/M version ?

Sorry, I ditched my last CPM-80 machine in 2007!  Perhaps you mean CP/M-86?

But, to be serious, figures suggest that there are more than 15M users running Linux on their desktop, worldwide.  I find it hard to believe that there were ever 15M users of CP/M.

- added "make bootable" script and syslinux for Linux clients

 

At long last - acknowledgement that not everyone has a machine running Microsoft (or even Apple)!

 

When can we expect a CP/M version ?

 

Sorry, I ditched my last CPM-80 machine in 2007!  Perhaps you mean CP/M-86?

 

But, to be serious, figures suggest that there are more than 15M users running Linux on their desktop, worldwide.  I find it hard to believe that there were ever 15M users of CP/M.

If Digital Research had turned up to the meeting with IBM as scheduled, there may well have been more than 15m.  They didn't turn up so IBM called Bill in.

If Digital Research had turned up to the meeting with IBM as scheduled, there may well have been more than 15m.  They didn't turn up so IBM called Bill in.

I often wonder whether Gary enjoyed his round of golf on that day!

Just to be a bit more precise ...

(a)  Digital Research DID show up for the meeting with IBM ... but Gary Kildall did not

(b)  Gary wasn't golfing; he was flying his new private plane that day and left the negotiations to his wife.  She would not make certain changes IBM insisted on without Gary's approval, and he apparently didn't make it back in time to rectify the damage that had been done.

Various accounts have indicated that Gary's flight that day was purely recreational; or that he was flying to a meeting with CompuPro (Bill Godbout's company) ... but in any event it was clearly a very poor choice to miss that meeting 

©  I suspect you're right that there were never 15 million users of CP/M ... I suspect there were a million or so, but not much more than that.

If you add the amount of DR-DOS installs to CP/M you'll get a few more million.

True, but that was nearly a decade later, long after CP/M was effectively dead  [Although there still a fair number of us old-timers still using it in the late 80's.]

... I ditched my last CPM-80 machine in 2007!

That was a lot later than I ditched my last one ... I think that was about a decade earlier.

I did, however, have a CP/M-80 implementation that ran under UniDOS for a good bit longer.

In fact, these last few posts kinda make me want to re-kindle one of my "one of these days" projects to see if UniDOS will run okay in an MSDOS VM ... which would let me run CP/M in a virtual machine    Might have to dig through my old archives !!

... I ditched my last CPM-80 machine in 2007!

 

That was a lot later than I ditched my last one ... I think that was about a decade earlier.

Well, to be fair, the hardware had sat under a desk for several years - the prompt for actually dumping it was my emigration to Philippines - I really couldn't justify shipping the very heavy, steel, 6u 19" case half way around the world.  However, I did power it up before it left the house - it still booted and ran!  This was using my own modified versions of CCP/Z, BDOS/Z and a bespoke BIOS.  I often reminisce about spending GBP500 on a used 5 MB SCSI Winchester disk drive!

I did, however, have a CP/M-80 implementation that ran under UniDOS for a good bit longer.

 

In fact, these last few posts kinda make me want to re-kindle one of my "one of these days" projects to see if UniDOS will run okay in an MSDOS VM ... which would let me run CP/M in a virtual machine    Might have to dig through my old archives !!

I ditched everything related - I'm not planning on going back there!

... I often reminisce about spending GBP500 on a used 5 MB SCSI Winchester disk drive!

A bargain !!    My first hard drive was a 14" Seagate 26MB Winchester unit that cost $4500 (in 1980 dollars -- that'd be about $14,000 today).    And that was at a time when that I absolutely could NOT afford to spend it -- that was nearly 2 months pay in those days.  But then I spent a LOT of $$ on my computer hobby in the 70's and early 80's.

I ditched everything related - I'm not planning on going back there!

When I ditched my last S-100 based setup with CP/M  [A Compupro setup that was LOADED -- both primary processor and a pair of MPX multiplexer cards with their own processors;  2 8" disk drives in addition to smaller floppies and a hard disk; etc.] it was for the same reason you did -- we were moving and the 2 large metal boxes [a Paradynamics chassis I'd bought plus another box for the 2 8" floppies] just weren't worth the trouble/cost to ship and store.  That was ~ 1995.

I also don't plan on "going back there" => but I DO have a complete set of archives of all the old floppies I had (8", 5.25", and 3.5") => not in floppy form, but stored away on some archived hard drives.  I may just for kicks dig out UniDOS and see if it runs okay on an MSDOS virtual machine ... would take more than an hour or so to do that.    If UniDOS runs, then CP/M will run fine on that setup !!    Wordstar v0.8 here I come !!    [i was a Beta tester for MicroPro so I have a couple of pre-release versions of Wordstar.]

I've done an awful lot of programming using Wordstar(!), in non-document mode.  I still try to remove a line of text with Ctl-Y.

I only used CP/M briefly, spent most of the time in those days with Commodore Business Machines, the successor to the PET, programming in Commodore Basic, some of the first applications for small businesses.  I actually miss those days.

I've done an awful lot of programming using Wordstar(!), in non-document mode.  I still try to remove a line of text with Ctl-Y.

 

I only used CP/M briefly, spent most of the time in those days with Commodore Business Machines, the successor to the PET, programming in Commodore Basic, some of the first applications for small businesses.  I actually miss those days.

Good Canadian company.  I still have a CBM filing cabinet circa 1954

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I've done an awful lot of programming using Wordstar(!), in non-document mode.  I still try to remove a line of text with Ctl-Y.

Definitely brings back memories.  I've written several tens of thousands of lines of code in non-document mode on Wordstar.  [i still have my ancient code archives; but haven't looked at any of them in YEARS].