I think it is pretty unreasonable to call CP/M "primitive beyond belief". It was...

zozbot234 · 2026-02-14T14:49:30 1771080570

> It was basically equivalent to MS-DOS in capability

MS-DOS 2.0 was a huge improvement, the first release didn't even support subdirectories or hard drives.

andrewstuart · 2026-02-14T10:51:37 1771066297

Yes. Primitive behind belief.

There was a time in the world when most PC users could drive the C prompt.

oncallthrow · 2026-02-14T11:20:35 1771068035

I suspect more computer users in total can use the terminal today than then

xp84 · 2026-02-14T18:45:11 1771094711

More in number, or as a percentage of people who use computers?

I’d believe the first one, but not the second. Even if you didn’t count the many people who only use completely closed systems like iOS, Chromebook, or the ordering kiosk at McDonalds in the denominator.

michaelcampbell · 2026-02-14T18:44:09 1771094649

Only because more exist. As a % of total, I highly doubt that.

andylynch · 2026-02-14T11:07:34 1771067254

It is said be way of comparison to modern platforms. Which seems pretty accurate.

loloquwowndueo · 2026-02-14T15:09:33 1771081773

Ms-dos was primitive beyond belief. Barely more than a program loader.

whobre · 2026-02-14T13:40:14 1771076414

> after all, MS-DOS was basically an unlicensed clone of CP/M for the 8086.

Eh, not really. The file system was very different and these early operating systems were mostly a file system. The system calls were almost identical…