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RE: Disappointed, yet..not surprised (was Re: Disappointed)

2004-09-23 08:23:28
People I know claim QDOS was created by disassembling CP/M and creating
source code.  And then building from there.  Anyone know if this is true?

Guy

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-spf-discuss(_at_)v2(_dot_)listbox(_dot_)com
[mailto:owner-spf-discuss(_at_)v2(_dot_)listbox(_dot_)com] On Behalf Of Michel 
Py
Sent: Thursday, September 23, 2004 2:49 AM
To: spf-discuss(_at_)v2(_dot_)listbox(_dot_)com
Subject: RE: [spf-discuss] Disappointed, yet..not surprised (was Re:
Disappointed)

Anne P. Mitchell, Esq. wrote:
the more things change, the more they remain the same. I don't
know how many of you knew Gary Kildall, or are familiar with
his story, but you can read about him here - pay particular
attention to the last paragraph.

The acquisition of Digital Research by Novell was the first in a string
of events that sealed Novell's fate in a very short period of time.

D.R. by itself was no longer a big threat to MS in '91, but in the hands
of a much bigger company such as Novell, DR-DOS was a different deal
especially considering that Novell in their utmost stupidity decided to
compete with Microsoft on every front instead of focusing on their core
competency, which led them to acquire WordPerfect, Quattro and Paradox
shortly after (they also acquired rights to Unix in these years).

These were the days when nobody had ever heard of Linus Torvalds, when
Windows was not ubiquitous (it was still running on top of MS-DOS), when
a PC still meant an IBM one, a 80386 was plenty fast, Microsoft was not
a monopoly and Novell was to networking what Frigidaire was to
refrigerators and Xerox was to copiers.

To be historically correct, Microsoft did not screw Gary directly, as
MS-DOS was the child of Seattle Computer Products Tim Paterson's QDOS
that Microsoft bought rights to for $50K.

That being said, there are numerous rumors of MS-DOS containing actual
CP/M code. The same rumors usually say that the CP/M code was leaked
into MS-DOS after MS acquired rights to QDOS, as MS must have had access
to the CP/M source code in order to develop the SoftCard:
http://www.aci.com.pl/mwichary/computerhistory/ads/international/microso
ft/pics/percon8110. (I still have one, runs Vordstar and Mehlmerge)

Let's just say that it is a big help, when reverse-engineering a
product, to have its source code.

The funniest part is that Apple did not see this when they licensed the
Mac software to MS. If my memory is correct, their lawsuit against MS
was dismissed based on this.

the more things change, the more they remain the same. 

Indeed. I think I'm going to watch "Pirates of Silicon Valley" one more
time.

Michel.

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