The best CP/M machine ever? was Re: Kaypro II

On 08/23/2012 04:02 PM, Tony Duell wrote: I missed the CP/M boat by a couple of years - started out with home computers where it was all BASIC and assembler, then straight to a DOS machine. I have a feeling that CP/M would have driven me nuts if used 'in anger' though. Purely within a vintage context I like it though, it doesn't get in the way of the bare metal much (and I've always been more of a hardware than software person), but still provides some vaguely useful services on otherwise-complicated machines. I have a QX-10 on the desk here beside me; it really is a lovely machine (despite the plastic case; somehow I always think that 'real' computers should have metal cases). And yes, those drives are great (although I had to clean/strip the eject mechanisms on mine; I suspect they're prone to sticking with age). I'm still looking for an Epson dot-matrix printer of some flavor to complete mine (and some add-on cards would be nice) Did you do anything to modify the airflow on yours? I think I read somewhere that they were prone to filling up with dust due to the lack of filter and fan direction. I think that was true of Torch CP/N too, wasn't it? Which makes me wonder how common "almost CP/M" variants were... I've been chasing one for a long time; I just have a thing for backplane-based systems (and the actual bus doesn't bother me). cheers Jules