Q-DOS, by Seattle Softworks, was bought by Gates lock, stock, and barrel after securing a deal with IBM to provide an OS for their new PC. It was re-branded as PC-DOS with Gates negotiating the rights to also sell it as MS-DOS.
Q-DOS itself was an 8086-targeted thinly-veiled illegal copy of CP/M, by Gary Kildall's Digital Research. This was settled in court in the 1990's in a ruling against it's original creator and Microsoft.
Kildall was the true father of the modern PC era, a big magnanimous genius who loved to share what he had invented and who is now largely forgotten.
And the "missed the meeting with IBM because he was out flying" is an incorrect urban legend with only casual coincidental truths. Read up on Gary. His kids made portions of his autobiography available for free download but redacted the last bits for "shameful political incorrectness" (my phrasing). Apparently he would have made a great Poaler had he lived into our times.
Thank you and that makes sense Bill's always been a privileged kid much like Marc Cuban who I read actually had enough money to buy the Golden ticket to fly in 1982. These rats didn't go from rags to riches. Gary Kildall sounds like a fascinating individual though.
Watch the old movie ‘Pirates of Silicone Valley’ with Anthony Michael Hall. It portrays Gates as the thief that he really is.
I have it. It's not perfect but it's probably the most historically accurate treatment I've seen of the era. A very good watch.
I thought I had torrented it years ago when I built my collection of old movies I enjoyed. It’s not there. I only find it on dvd now. I guess that’s why I didn’t get it.
Found it on daily motion. Two parts. Here is the first. For anyone that wants to watch.
Most original coders wanted software to be free for the good of humanity.
The linux and copyleft model which has worked so well.
Gates was the one who tried to legally restrict it all for profit. Here he is ranting about it in 1980. https://features.slashdot.org/story/00/01/20/1316236/B-Gates-Rants-About-Software-Copyrights---in-1980
No, QDOS was how the software got its start (Quick & Dirty Operating System) - it later became 86-DOS and that product was purchased from SCP (Seattle Computer Products) and turned into MS-DOS.
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