[rbanffy]

I was able to save a wordstar document on any CP/M (including CP/M 86) machine and transfer it to any other, including my Apple II running CP/M through a coprocessor. Most other word processors of the time could exchange files in one format or another. I never had any problems with it.

And you shouldn't be using a SPARC 5 on 1994 anyway.

[gaius]

That is true, but it is also true that CP/M was never dominant in the same way that Windows became. At the same time as CP/M there were all the micros (BBC, Commodore, Sinclair, Amstrad), Japan had the MSX "standard" etc etc.

Whereas in the Windows era you were likely to fnd machines running the same applications everywhere, even at home.

[rbanffy]

CP/M was very important in the small-business microcomputer space, offering a measure of compatibility other platforms couldn't. Minis lived above that space and didn't compete directly with micros in the small-business.

The home computer space was much more fragmented and was where Apple, Commodore, Atari, BBC, Amstrad and Sinclair competed. BBC, Amstrad and Sinclair were important only in Europe, further fragmenting that market. It later became dominated by the same IBM-PC clones that took over small businesses.