August 2, 2026
Floppy disk, huge feelings
CP/M-386 – CP/M for 386 protected mode, derived from CP/M‑68K
A tiny old-school operating system just woke up fans, history nerds, and chaos goblins
TLDR: CP/M-386 is an early rebuild of a classic lightweight operating system for old 386 computers, and it can run with just 2MB of memory. That tiny footprint sparked a loud comment war: fans praised it as a rebuke to modern software bloat, while retro historians reignited old battles over whether CP/M and DR-DOS were better than MS-DOS.
A very early version of CP/M-386—basically a revival of a classic pre-Windows style operating system for old 386-era PCs—has landed, and the crowd reaction is half standing ovation, half retro-history cage match. On paper, the project is nerd catnip: it runs in modern 32-bit protected mode, can boot from a floppy or a loader like GRUB, works with as little as 2MB of memory, and aims for strong compatibility with older CP/M software. Translation for non-vintage-computing people: this is a tiny, lean system trying to do real work without the giant appetite of today’s software stacks.
That last point is where the comments got spicy. One fan basically looked at the 2MB memory requirement and declared it a moral victory over “bloated” 2026 operating systems. Another jumped in with a full retro rant, arguing that old rivals like CP/M-86 and DR-DOS were way ahead of MS-DOS, only to get buried by history and market momentum. In other words: this wasn’t just a software release, it turned into a courtroom drama about which old PC system deserved the crown.
And then came the jokes. The funniest line of the thread might be the deadpan, “CP/M - because pip just makes more sense than copy,” a niche joke that instantly became catnip for old-school command-line fans. Even the practical questions had attitude, like someone asking whether memory is flat or “banked like DOS,” which is the retro-computing equivalent of asking whether the new band is authentic or just wearing vintage jackets. The project is early, missing lots of device support, and absolutely not pretending otherwise—but the comments make one thing clear: for a certain corner of the internet, this is less a code drop and more a revenge tour.
Key Points
- •CP/M-386 is an early-stage 32-bit protected-mode CP/M implementation for 386-class systems, derived from CP/M-68K.
- •The project supports booting from either a 1.44MB floppy disk MBR or as a GRUB Multiboot kernel, with VGA text and COM1 serial console support.
- •Its BDOS is at full parity with CP/M-68K 1.3 and CP/M 2.2, with partial support for CP/M-Plus, DOS-Plus, and MP/M 2.1.
- •Supported hardware includes 386-or-later systems with at least 2MB RAM, PC BIOS or UEFI with CSM, VGA, PS/2, UART, RTC, and PIT components.
- •Building requires a Unix-like toolchain including cpmtools 2.23+, GCC or Clang, NASM, and GNU tools, while testing is documented with QEMU commands.