!Re: Nuke Redmond!

From: Paul Braun <nerdware_at_laidbak.com>
Date: Fri Apr 7 23:49:40 2000

Apparently, "Sean 'Captain Napalm' Conner" saw fit to utter some of the following:


<snippage>
> > > computer in the late 70s. Tim probably modeled his QDOS
> > > (Quick-n-Dirty Operating System) closely after CP/M (some say he may
> > > have mechanically translated CP/M since copyright statements to
> > > Digital Research have allegedly been found in MS-DOS 1.x but I haven't
> > > seen any). Why not? It would have been a quick and easy way to get
> > > an OS for the 8086 system up and running.
> >
<snippage>
> > You're not even sure he
> > actually saw and read the source code. How many programmers do you know
> > who'd simply copy someone else's work in a case like this? Everybody
> > wants to leave his own mark.

Can you say Stacker? Quicktime for Windows?
>
<snippage>
> > >
> > Buying something that shortens your burden is kind-of like buying an
> > integrated circuit rather than making the thing yourself starting with a
> > wheelbarrow of sand. The fact that Microsoft knew that IBM had gone to
> > Kildall probably told them what they wanted was sort-f like CP/M.
>
> Like I said, the story of MS-DOS isn't that straightforward. Bill Gates
> even told IBM to check with Digital Research for their OS. It was only
> when IBM came back saying they were having negotiation difficulties with
> DR did Bill Gates offer them an OS from Microsoft.

And that was only because IBM was going to kill the whole deal if
they couldn't get an OS to go with MS BASIC. Bill told them
"Yeah, we'll have an OS for you" and then ran down the street to
Tim's shop.
>
> Bill Gates knew of QDOS and worked with SCP to licence it from them,
> without telling SCP who their primary customer was. SCP was a bit peeved
> when it learned that Microsoft's customer was IBM.
>
> It wasn't until a few years later did Microsoft buy QDOS outright, after
> SCP had gone bankrupt.
>

And IBM apparently found enough code lifted directly from CP/M to
justify an $800,000 settlement with Kildall to keep him from suing
them.

> > > Apple was working on a version of BASIC for the Macintosh that would
> > > resemble VB today in the late 80s/early 90s. Microsoft got wind of it
> > > and threatened to cut their license to Microsoft BASIC for the APPLE
> > > II (still amoney maker at the time) if Apple actually released the
> > > product. Apple towed the line and what do you know---Microsoft
> > > produces this very innovative product called Visual Basic shortly
> > > thereafter, but for Windows.
> > >
> > ... and now you'd like me to believe that MS knew this and copied it?
> > Frankly, if I'd been in Billy's place, knowing that Apple had considered
> > it would have scared me off.
>
> This is Bill we're talking about here ... 8-)

Bill knew about the Lisa and the Mac OS and the work at PARC,
and that didn't scare him off, did it? No, he just cobbled a crude
windowed-DOS patch together and called it Windows. Used all the
money and leverage he'd gotten by catching a ride with IBM to
make people try to buy it.

Wile we're on the subject of Bill's "lucky" meeting with IBM, let's
not forget that Bill's mom and one of IBM's higher-ups served on
the same United Way Board of Directors.........think that might
have something to do with it?

And Paul Allen used a DEC when he "wrote" MITS BASIC.

Also, according to one of the original Amiga coders, when
Micros~1 (I love that!) was writing Virus95, they tried to buy the
neat little Workbench feature that lets you control the mouse
pointer with the cursor keys in an emergency, but since C='s stuff
was all tied up in bankruptcy court in the Bahamas, they couldn't
touch it. As much as my Micros~1 mouse locks up on my
machine at work (running a Micros~1 OS, no less), I could sure
use that feature......along with the neat little pointer editor that
allowed me to draw my own mouse pointer instead of having to
accept the little arrow....



Paul Braun
NerdWare -- The History of the PC and the Nerds who brought it to you.
nerdware_at_laidbak.com
www.laidbak.com/nerdware
Received on Fri Apr 07 2000 - 23:49:40 BST