Pirates...

From: van burnham <van_at_wired.com>
Date: Wed Jun 23 13:21:35 1999

Sorry about that...

Thanks for the correction Allison! I have conflicting information on the
QDOS purchase. And as an aside, why the hell didn't they show Bill getting
the infamous "mug shot" taken before he was tossed in jail in that film?
That would not only have been fantastic and hysterically funny, it would
have tied the scene back into reality somewhat.

And I think Woz was technically "moonlighting" (helping Steve Jobs with his
programming) after hours at Atari and was, in fact, still at HP. I need to
check on that.

xoxo van


><#2 IBM came to Microsoft looking for an operating system for the IBM PC,
><not the other way around. Microsoft originally sent IBM to Gary Kildall
><(developer of CP/M) who refused to meet with them. IBM returned to Gates
><who, in turn, bought the OS from Kildall himself for $50K and then license
><it back to IBM. These facts were totally inaccurate in the film.
>
>Way off.
>
>First Kildall didn't take the IBM meeting seriously and his wife working
>with layers could net get to agreement on nodisclosure that IBM wanted.
>Gary didn't refuse to meet with IBM, they "dropped in" and it was not
>convenient.
>
>Second Gates bought Qdos (a lofing of CPM1.3, that was copyright infringed)
>from Seattle Computer for $50k and granted a unlimited license back to them.
>He would later reneg on the deal. The copyright problem would result in
>the rapid design by virgins and issue of the buggy MSDOS/PCDOS V2.
>
><#3 Bill's hair was never that blonde.
>
>In 1978 when I met him at PCC78 it was light but very dirty blonde!
>
>Allison



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Received on Wed Jun 23 1999 - 13:21:35 BST