The day Bill Gates get lucky

Hey people out there,

Hey this sunday is the PC's 20th birthday. and here is an article I read this afternoon in the tube. Share with every body around the world.

nope - just checked - it was 50k (doh!) and the CP/M company headed by Garry Kildall called Digital Research

Thank you pip for your input,

extend my knowledge a lot.

thanks again

And yeah pip Did speak unto the masses thusly:

<snip excellent history lesson> once seen a guy from Sun talking about how bill got ibm to build up his user base before screwing them all he said was 'Bill gates will NEVER sneak up on anyone like that again' and he was BITTER

tonight on BBC1 BILL GATES....when geeks go bad

The story goes that when the IBM suits arrived at IGR (it was 'Intergalactic Digital Research', later to become just 'Digital Research' Gary Kildall was out flying his plane, and his wife, Dorothy, refused to sign the non-disclosure agreement with IBM.

When the IBM'ers returned to Microsoft, still OS-less, Gates then promised to deliver them an OS. Gates then paid Tim Paterson of Seattle Computer Products $50,000 for their QDOS (Quick and Dirty Operating System) that MS then hacked into DOS.

I've often wondered how Gates must have felt after he'd sent the IBM people to IGR, realising perhaps too late that here was the ultimate pot of gold slipping through his fingers. Had Kildall had the business drive and acumen of Gates, the world would be running DR Windows instead of MS Windows. But Gates had the luck that few businesses get - a second bite at the cherry, and he wasn't letting it slip again.

Mind you, Gates had more than luck. His mother, Mary, sat on the national board of United Way, along with IBM chairman John Opel. They became friends, Opel was impressed that Lowe was talking to MS, and that clinched the deal for Gates.

That's the story, but it's actually not *quite* correct. Gary was flying, true enough, but it wasn't his plane and he wasn't the pilot. He was actually on a business trip and couldn't be contacted because he was in the air at the time.

I'll give Bill full credit on this. He did send IBM to IDR. One version I read claimed that IBM believed that MS owned the rights to CP/M because the BASIC interpreter on most CP/M machines was from MS and IBM couldn't conceive of having software from more than one company. Probably not true, but it could be.

Does anybody remember the Tandy Model 16? It was out around the same time as the original IBM PC (possibly a little earlier) and ran an OS called Xenix. Guess who owned Xenix, and sold it to SCO when PC-DOS took off.

Ahhh, the if-onlys and coulda-beens... hat's the story, but it's actually not *quite* correct. Gary was flying, true enough, but it wasn't his plane and he wasn't the pilot. He was actually on a business trip and couldn't be contacted because he was in the air at the time.

I'll give Bill full credit on this. He did send IBM to IDR. One version I read claimed that IBM believed that MS owned the rights to CP/M because the BASIC interpreter on most CP/M machines was from MS and IBM couldn't conceive of having software from more than one company. Probably not true, but it could be.

Does anybody remember the Tandy Model 16? It was out around the same time as the original IBM PC (possibly a little earlier) and ran an OS called Xenix. Guess who owned Xenix, and sold it to SCO when PC-DOS took off.

Ahhh, the if-onlys and coulda-beens... [ snip ]