Date: Thu, 9 Aug 2001 12:09:43 +0930 From: Greg Lehey <grog@FreeBSD.org> To: Terry Lambert <tlambert2@mindspring.com> Cc: Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org>, j mckitrick <jcm@FreeBSD-uk.eu.org>, freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: How did the MSFT monopoly start? Message-ID: <20010809120943.F73579@wantadilla.lemis.com> In-Reply-To: <3B70FBEB.BB315B93@mindspring.com>; from tlambert2@mindspring.com on Wed, Aug 08, 2001 at 01:44:27AM -0700 References: <20010806142544.A64348@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org> <15214.52633.581653.632317@guru.mired.org> <3B6F98D0.A3C22CC9@mindspring.com> <4.3.2.7.2.20010807150857.0483dd20@localhost> <20010808153229.L78395@wantadilla.lemis.com> <3B70FBEB.BB315B93@mindspring.com>
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On Wednesday, 8 August 2001 at 1:44:27 -0700, Terry Lambert wrote:
> Greg Lehey wrote:
>>> Actually, they did. In fact, IBM came to visit. But DRI
>>> founder Gary Killdall left his significant other in
>>> charge that day.... She freaked out about signing the
>>> NDAs regarding IBM's PC business and sent them away.
>>
>> That's the first time I've heard that version. The one I heard was
>> that Gary didn't want to meet them and went out flying.
>>
>> Does anybody know when this was? I was at a conference in London in
>> early September 1980, and Gary and Bill Gates ("who?" I asked; I knew
>> very well who Gary was) were supposed to be there, Bill to talk about
>> the new Microsoft Operating System, XENIX (I kid you not). Bill did a
>> no-show, apparently because of some urgent business, but Gary showed
>> up.
>
> Note: I recommend this book; I also recommend the videos, and
> I recommend the web site (it includes full transcripts, Q&A,
> links for buying the book and videos, etc.):
>
> http://www.pbs.org/nerds/
Hmm. That doesn't mean that every word of it is true. On the whole,
though, it doesn't look too bad.
> From Accidental Empires, by Robert X. Cringely (Chapter Seven: "All
> IBM Stories Are True"):
>
> [ ... ]
> But Lowe and his crew, breaking the first of many rules,
> decided to buy everything. They started by looking for
> software. Since Lowe wanted to buy his software from an
> established vendor, CP/M looked like his only choice.
> CP/M came from Gary Kildall's Digital Research, only for
> some reason IBM didn't know that. The usually infallable
> briefing book said that CP/M was a Microsoft product. In
> probably his last gracious gesture toward a competitor,
> Bill Gates told the caller from IBM that a mistake had
> been made, and gave them Kildall's number in Pacific
> Grove.
This whole paragraph sounds very implausible.
> [ ... ] The whole plan depends on getting reliable
> suppliers, so Lowe sends his lieutenants out to Digital
> Research and Microsoft to find out what kind of people
> these are. When the IBMers arrive in Pacific Grove,
> California, to talk with Gary Kildall at Digital
> Research, he wasn't there. Despite his appointment with
> IBM, Gary had gone flying in his small plane. Not a good
> first impression.
>
> With Gary out flying around, the people left at Digital
> Research didn't know what these IBM guys wanted to talk
> about, and the IBM guys wouldn't talk about anything
> until a nondisclosure agreement was signed.
>
> [ ... nondisclosure, the 1956 consent decree, etc. ... ]
>
> Jump back to Pacific Grove, where Digital Research didn't
> even have a nondisclosure agreement of its own. Gary was
> still flying around somewhere over the Santa Cruz
> mountains, while Dorothy Kildall squinted at the IBM
> nondisclosure agreement, imagining her new house with its
> stable and hot tub going on the auction block following
> an IBM legal action. She refused to sign, so the men
> from IBM left town, having never revealed the plans for
> the Acorn [IBM PC] but still needing an operating system.
Again, this sounds implausible. At that time, Digital Research had an
operating system under development, Microsoft didn't. At the very
least IBM would have followed up by phone. They did, of course: CP/M
86 was available for the PC from the very beginning. The big
difference seems to be that IBM chose PC/DOS, presumably because of
more favourable licensing conditions. From the Byte review in the
October 1981 issue, page 28:
IBM will sell three different disk operating systems: CP/M-86 from
Digital Research, the UCSD p-System from Softech Microsystems, and
IBM Personal Computer DOS, developed by Microsoft in imitation of
CP/M. IBM isn't trying to force the world to choose between the IBM
DOS and other popular operating systems.
> [ ... Gary Kildall died from alien experiments ... ]
>
>>> Many years after that. It happened in 1979, and Kildall
>>> died in 1995. He died relatively young, at 52. From
>>> complications following a fight in a bar.
>>
>> Again, the first time I have heard that version. I heard he fell down
>> the stairs. Any background?
>
> http://www.cadigital.com/kildall.htm
>
> "Gary Kildall died in July 1994 at the age of 52. The
> computer media, with a few small exceptions, ignored
> his passing. The Circumstances of his death are pretty
> murky. One report attributed it to a fall from a
> ladder, another an incident at a bar, and another to
> a heart attack."
>
> http://www.kzin.com/pchist/drdoshst.htm
>
> "Gary Kildall died on July 11, 1994 at the age 52.
> There are many conflicting stories as to how he died,
> many say that he killed himself (or that was the
> industry rumors). It seems some were trying to keep
> the story quiet, and that has only given the story
> credence. The story I believe is that he was shot in
> a barroom altercation (that had no relevance to
> anything else), and that everyone is keeping it quiet
> due to some legal issues."
Aha. Well, I suppose it'll remain a mystery.
Greg
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