Date   : Sat, 26 Oct 1985 00:03:00 MDT
From   : "Frank J. Wancho" <WANCHO@SIMTEL20.ARPA>
Subject: Is CP/M Dead (or) Turbo buy fun

Bob,

First, let's clarify one point: if you judge the vitality of an
operating system, or anything else for that matter, on the basis of
vendor support, then there are many popular, but dead products out
there.

In the case of CP/M and DRI, it was CP/M-Plus that was put out to
pasture under the heading of Level "D" support "for mature products
that are not actively supported".  CP/M 2.2 (CP/M-80) has been
assigned Level "C" support, which is limited to questions submitted on
CompuServe and phone calls.

Now, that is not as good as Level "B" ("active support", meaning
they'll eventually answer letters, too) nor Level "A".  But, it's not
dead, or in the "mature" catagory as far as DRI is concerned.

Of course, the counter argument is that CP/M-80 was never supported by
DRI in the first place.  Ever try to call in the early days and get an
answer?

Just because Adam Osborne says there's no future in CP/M-80 doesn't
mean that it is dead.  There's a difference.  The market for CP/M is
simply mature and mostly saturated.  If you're going to write
software, don't bother writing for CP/M - write for the hungry mass
market that's still trying to catch up with the rest of us using
tight, functional, and efficient programs.  There's a future and a
fortune there, not in CP/M.

There are about maybe 2 million CP/M users out there, many of them
perfectly content with what they have and don't need anything else.
See Jerry Pournelle's column this month for one, possibly prevelant
viewpoint, at least among us diehards, and note that Jerry has a
choice.

--Frank