!Re: Nuke Redmond!

From: Paul Braun <nerdware_at_laidbak.com>
Date: Wed Apr 12 23:50:28 2000

Here's where that little factoid came from.


>From The Microsoft File by Wendy Goldman Rohm 1998, Times Books, a
division of Random House, Inc., New York. ISBN 0-8129-2716-8

"Microsoft DOS still contained lines of code written by DRI's founder,
Gary Kildall. In fact, IBM had been so paranoid about that when they
realized Gates had sold them a clone, they paid Kildall about $800,000 - a
pittance given the billions Microsoft had raked in from the product over
the years - in exchange for his promise never to sue."


> "Paul Braun" <nerdware_at_laidbak.com> wrote:
> > 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.
>
> Very interesting. I've heard a lot of claims that Tim copied actual code
> from CP/M, including mentions of intact copyright notices (which I
> couldn't find when I examined an IBM DOS 1.0 diskette), but I've never
> before heard about a settlement. Do you have any further references or
> info? I'd love to learn more about this.
>
> The thing that I find amazing about the idea that Tim might have copied DR
> code is that CP/M is so small and simple that I wouldn't expect it to be
> worth the effort to do a binary translation of it, especially if you plan
> to replace the file system code (which is the bulk of the BDOS) anyhow.





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 Wed Apr 12 2000 - 23:50:28 BST