14 Aug
1998
14 Aug
'98
1:42 p.m.
Adam Jenkins wrote:
Do recall that QDOS was a straightforward CP/M clone and that MS-DOS
to at least version 3.0 _documented_ the CP/M compatible system calls
in the OS they'd bought. CP/M didn't fizzle. When you use a DOS
interface under NT, the command switch character is that which MS-DOS
took from CP/M and Kildall took from DEC.
--
Ward Griffiths <mailto:gram@cnct.com> <http://www.cnct.com/home/gram/>
Bill Gates has this situation where the federal government wants him
convicted for attempting a monopoly. Has Bill considered responding
with a question as to why there's only one Justice Department?
Exactly, the Altair helped kick-off the hobbiest
movement by being cheap.
The Mark-8 did this earlier, but it was so slow and buggy that it was
pretty much a non-starter. The Altair was an improvement, but it was also
pretty much a non-starter that fizzled after about 10,000 units. The
Altair was the grandfather of the S-100 bus and CP/M, both of which
fizzled and left only a minor mark on MS-DOS, which didn't fizzle.
I think that to say that the S-100 Bus and CP/M "fizzled" is to seriously
understate the value of both. :) I'm sure you don't mean to suggest that
they were without value, but keep in mind that 6 years of dominance (which
is probably the minimum that one would give to CP/M and the S100) is an
incredibly long time in the fledging personal computer field. True, it
doesn't stand up that well to 15+ years of Microsoft, but it was the
dominate architecture on teh market.