How long did CP/M have a hold before MS-DOS became a thing

[Unknown_K]

Japan stuck with CP/M for longer than the USA. The Epson QX-10 came out in 1983 and it had a Z80 and ran CP/M 2.2. A little later they released the QX-16 a dual CPU (z80 & 8088) that ran either CP/M or MS DOS 2.2. So by then the handwriting was on the wall. Of note, the QX-16 does not use PC format disks since it was released just before the IBM PC came out. While it runs MS DOS, it is not IBM PC compatible for IBM only programs or graphics. So it too died a rapid death.

What was more popular MSX machines or CP/M in Japan?

 

[Agent Orange]

There were lots and lots of money to be made in the clone market. Two distinct markets were emerging; i.e. small business and the home/hobbyist crew. It didn't long for the entrepreneurs to start moving the arcade offerings over to the Apple and DOS platforms. Unless there was a bolt from the sky, CP/M didn't stand a chance without color graphics. One could buy PC-DOS for about $60 and move it around as desired. There were lots of good accounting software running on DOS, like Peachtree and word processors like WordStar. WordStar was pretty much the boss in the early going, which had its roots in CP/M, but also had the ability to be ported across many different platforms and was fairly dominate on DOS. I still have my original boxed set. Soon, WordPerfect for DOS moved in and remained top dog until the Windows era became dominate with Word. None of this is really news, but sort of a reminder of the presence and power of IBM's ability to shape and move an industry.

 

[krebizfan]

DRI did promote GSX for a number of years not that it ever got much traction. It solved cross platform graphical programing with multiple colors.

Amusingly, the 1993 issue of a German user group newsletter I have been reading had an article on porting a DOS graphical program to CP/M. Just a little too late to help push CP/M back into a dominant position.

 

[Eudimorphodon]

Of note, the QX-16 does not use PC format disks since it was released just before the IBM PC came out. While it runs MS DOS, it is not IBM PC compatible for IBM only programs or graphics.

The QX-16s sold in the United States, at least, had an additional board installed that gave them IBM CGA compatibility, and while they did use 80 track drives instead of 40 track they could mostly handle reading PC disks. Here’s a link to the tech manual, which has descriptions of the PC compatibility hacks.

It still wasn’t a particularly good PC compatible, but they did *try*.