cpm had the most business software in the 8 bit world like wordstar, turbo pascal, dbase and others
(
Which all were also available on a MS-DOS machines.
I got my first serious programming experiences on Turbo Pascal. An
illegal black copy. Sorry for that, Borland.
I couldn't afford you [a fourteen year old pupil with 20,- allowance was told he has to pay 1k for the IDE, and 2K for each library; without any you cannot do anything really useful in time. (No wonder open source became successful *cough*)] But you teached me well. So: Thank You!
That's btw. another theory of mine: By my theory Autodeks's AutoCAD became #1 because when first PCs entered student's desktops it was the easiest to black copy, while others protected their SW with dongles. So everybody ran AutoCAD. And what will be bought later in the company? Everybody knows. Which was everybody used as a student: AutoCAD
(
I had a legal copy of MaxonCAD
the CAD its name I still don't remember on my A2000 - so, don't sue me for this!
)
)
Yes.
But don't oversee the "revolution" when computers 'went home.'
CP/M was before MS-DOS.
As far as I know, IBM assigned as small subcontractor named Microsoft to develop a "somehow unixlike, but way less complex, and easier to use successor for CP/M" which became DOS, which IBM finally not bought, and which MS then sold by themselves, which was the initial start for..."the rest."
However, for the situation we are talking here, CP/M is of no importance.
You cannot compare the numbers of business machines used in offices while the era of 8bit homecomputers, with the -
way - larger numbers, when Johnny Everyone went to the supermarket to buy himself a "PC" for 899,- at "radioshack" - especially not when "the internet started."
You can turn it as you like, pick single aspects which were absolutely correct, but you have to see it as a way more complex process with not only technical, but economical, and also social aspects over app. thirty, fourty years...
To end with an (old) joke:
Without free porn the internet never got out of universities, astronomy, and the military.
Personally, as some electronics educated engineer, interested in computers all my life, if I could use a time machine, I would go to San Francisco, and back in time, just to watch and listen the meetings of the
Homebrew Computer Club. Today this was all on Youtube - BORING! Listen to real people's ideas - LIVE!
I guess, there was one or the other brillant idea not made it into business world; forgotten. Maybe stored in some basement's cardboad box on some yellowed paper written with typewriter... we may could think of today.
Maybe. Maybe not.
For sure I missed a thrilling period on computers.
But I was too young, and on the other side of the world - one cannot have everything.
But I am very happy to use with FreeBSD an Operating System that follows the best ideas computer science brought up, no matter what the market tells - which is ruled by the majority, who are morons.
