On Fri, 8 Dec 2000, Gil Parrish wrote:
> Wouldn't it be fun to go back in time and sit in at that meeting between
> giant IBM and little Microsoft. Was that proviso-- that Gates could sell it
> to other-- a BIG point in the discussions, or a small one? IBM probably
> thought hardware was the important thing, and didn't care whether others got
> the same operating system. On this thread hangs Bill Gates today as a
> billionaire, and IBM as practically an "also ran" in the personal computer
> market.
>
I'm sure it was a big deal for Bill Gates. That he was smart enough
to insist on that little point of being able to sell DOS to others
made him what he is today. I think he was enthusiastic about whatever
else IBM wanted and he didn't want much in the way of money from
IBM.
IBM even thought it a bit odd that he insisted on that point about
the operating system because they had always made their money with
hardware.
Actually Gates thought that Microsoft was going to make its money
with BASIC and other languages for the PC. Gates originally sent
IBM to Gary Kildall for the operating system--but on the advice of
the company lawyer Kildall and his wife refused to sign a non-disclosure
waiver and IBM wouldn't talk without it.
This frustrated Gates because it was going to delay the whole project.
To save the project and his big deal for BASIC Gates bought QDOS and
went on from there. Some books even maintain that Microsoft sold
DOS to IBM even before they had accquired the "rights" to it.
I put "rights" in quotations because it would have been fairly simple
to make the case that QDOS was a copyright violation of CP/M. Digital
Research never bothered to make the case.
Basically, Bill Gates is a pirate, or close to it. He ate everybody's
lunch.
Sam Ewalt
> The other piece of this history that is fun to tell is the fact that Kendall
> and Digital Research were the operating system giants at that time. And IBM
> first knocked on Kendall's door to get an operating system for the PC. Only
> Kendall was out playing golf or something, thinking the meeting with IBM had
> been cancelled since Kendall refused to sign their draconian secrecy
> agreement in advance. So IBM went to Gates, and Kendall apparently thought
> it was no big deal; EVERYONE would want to buy HIS operating system for the
> new PCs, despite the fact it wasn't ready when the PCs were, cost more, had
> no big advantages, etc. That's why Digital Research isn't where Microsoft
> is today.
>
