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Date:      Mon, 25 Aug 1997 20:26:58 -0500 (EST)
From:      John Fieber <jfieber@indiana.edu>
To:        Wes Peters - Softweyr LLC <softweyr@xmission.com>
Cc:        chat@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Since the MicroSloth(tm) jokes have been flowing...
Message-ID:  <Pine.BSF.3.96.970825202243.341K-100000@fallout.campusview.indiana.edu>
In-Reply-To: <199708260025.SAA04804@xmission.xmission.com>

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On Mon, 25 Aug 1997, Wes Peters - Softweyr LLC wrote:

> > But MS didn't write DOS.  It was written by Tim Patterson at
> > Seattle Computer Products and MS bought it for $50,000.
> 
> Bzzzt!  Wrong answer.  MS bought two "licenses to use" for $500.00
> apiece, disassembled it, changed a few strings, reassembled it, 
> and called this "MS-DOS 1.0".  SCP later sued them and recovered
> 20 million or so, which certainly caused Microsoft less pain than
> developing their own OS would have.

Okay, my most handy source is Robert Cringely's book "Accidental
Empires" which cites the $50,000 figure.  Do you have another,
possibly more reputable source?  Not that I care what the answer
is, but it would be good to know which stories are mere rumor...

-john




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