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Did Microsoft steal DOS from CP/M?

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing August 8, 2016February 21, 2022computer software, Digital Research, Gary Kildall, IBM, intel, Jerry Pournelle, podcast, SCO

Did Microsoft steal DOS from CP/M? There’s $100,000 in it for you if you can prove they did.

Digital forensics consultant Bob Zeidman still says no. I’ve written about him before. But the rumors persist, hence the reward. So how would one go about claiming it?

Start with what we know.

Dave Farquhar

David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He has written professionally about computers since 1991, so he was writing about retro computers when they were still new. He has been working in IT professionally since 1994 and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He holds Security+ and CISSP certifications. Today he blogs five times a week, mostly about retro computers and retro gaming covering the time period from 1975 to 2000.

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Gary Kildall’s memoirs released

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing August 4, 2016November 25, 2018Gary Kildall

Gary Kildall’s memoirs are legendary vaporware. Until now. Today, the Computer History Museum released 79 pages of it. What was released today isn’t the whole manuscript. But it’s better than what we had yesterday.

Gary Kildall is one of the unsung heroes of early computing. As such, he’s one of my favorite people to write about.

Late in his life, he started to write a memoir. I’ve only had a chance to read parts of the first two chapters, but they explain the man and his motives. It’s not the whole manuscript, and some people aren’t happy about that. But it’s better than what we had yesterday.

Most of what exists of computing history came from the victors’ point of view. Gary Kildall wasn’t one of the winners. But without his contributions, the winners wouldn’t have had much to build on.

Maybe someday Gary Kildall will get his due. Releasing his story in his own words is a start.

Undoubtedly I will have more to say after I read all 79 pages myself. But this release is too important not to mention.

Dave Farquhar

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Origin of CP/M’s PIP command

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing June 8, 2016November 26, 2018command prompt, commodore, commodore 128, DEC, Digital Equipment Corporation, Gary Kildall, PIP, syntax, unix

CP/M was, as you probably know, the first popular microcomputer operating system. It was good but imperfect, and its cryptic command for copying files, PIP, is often cited as an example. Copy makes sense. Even the Unix equivalent, cp, makes sense–it’s copy without the vowels. But what does PIP mean? What’s the origin of CP/M’s PIP command?

Dave Farquhar

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Gary Kildall and what might have been

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing August 8, 2012February 21, 20221980s, Bill Gates, columbia missourian, Digital Research, Gary Kildall, IBM, public domain, SCO, tinkerer, unix

I didn’t have time to write everything I wanted to write yesterday, so I’m going to revisit Bill Gates and Gary Kildall today. Bill Gates’ side of the DOS story is relatively well documented in his biographies: Gates referred IBM to Gary Kildall, who for whatever reason was less comfortable working with IBM than Gates was. And there was an airplane involved, though what Kildall was doing in the airplane and why varies. By some accounts he was meeting another client, and by other accounts it was a joyride. IBM in turn came back to Gates, who had a friend of a friend who was cloning CP/M for the 8086, so Microsoft bought the clone for $50,000, cleaned it up a little, and delivered it to IBM while turning a huge profit. Bill Gates became Bill Gates, and Kildall and his company, Digital Research, slowly faded away.

The victors usually get to write the history. I’ve tried several times over the years to find Kildall’s side of the story. I first went looking sometime in 1996 or so, for a feature story about Internet misinformation I wrote for the Columbia Missourian‘s Sunday magazine. For some reason, every five years or so I end up chasing the story down again.
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Dave Farquhar

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The CP/M-DOS forensics don’t prove much

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing August 7, 2012January 10, 2025atari, Bill Gates, Digital Research, Gary Kildall, Jerry Pournelle, john c dvorak, pc magazine, QDOS

I saw the headline on Slashdot: Forensic evidence trying to prove whether MS-DOS contained code lifted from CP/M. That got my attention, as the connection between MS-DOS and its predecessor, CP/M, is one of the great unsolved mysteries of computing.

Unfortunately, the forensic evidence doesn’t prove a lot.

Dave Farquhar

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SCO v. IBM winds toward resolution

Dave Farquhar Linux, Retro Computing February 18, 2012October 30, 20181990s, AIX, AT&T, BSD, Digital Research, Gary Kildall, IBM, intel, SCO, unix, x86

Slashdot reported yesterday that SCO v. IBM is back on. Well, it is, sort of. The case never was fully resolved, due to SCO running out of money and filing for bankruptcy. Groklaw has the details.

If this sounds vaguely familiar, I’ll try to refresh your memory.

Dave Farquhar

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Was CP/M overrated?

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing September 27, 2011October 1, 20181980s, atari, atari st, Bill Gates, commodore, commodore 128, DEC, Gary Kildall, IBM, PIP, unix, vector, windows nt

Veteran tech journalist Dan Tynan recently published a list of 10 overrated technology products, and CP/M was on his list. But was CP/M overrated? I want to dig into that question a bit.

I think everyone knows the story of how IBM almost used CP/M as the operating system for its PC, but ended up using an upstart product from a small company named Microsoft instead. We’ll probably never know exactly what happened, seeing as the author of CP/M is dead and his business partner is no longer able to recollect those events from the 1980 timeframe, and IBM and Bill Gates have no reason to embarrass themselves by revisiting the story.

But CP/M was the first and most popular operating system for early 8-bit computers, so people who used it remember it fondly, and the way Microsoft steamrolled it made Gary Kildall and his operating system folk heroes to underdog lovers everywhere. Even people who never used it and weren’t even born when Kildall’s company ceased to exist have at least a vague idea of what it was.
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Dave Farquhar

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Happy birthday, IBM PC!

Dave Farquhar Hardware, Retro Computing August 12, 2011December 24, 20251980s, 1990s, amd, apple, apple ii, commodore, commodore 64, compaq, dell, Gary Kildall, hp, IBM, intel, lenovo, macintosh, Maxtor, pc magazine, Personal Computer, radio shack

The IBM PC 5150 turns 30 today.

IBM didn’t invent the personal computer, but if your computer has an Intel or AMD CPU in it, it’s the direct descendant of the beige box IBM unleashed on the world on August 12, 1981. Without a huge amount of effort, it’s even possible to run most of that old software on your shiny new PC. You probably wouldn’t want to, except out of curiosity, but you can do it.

I wasn’t one of the people who rushed out and got one. At the time, I was still watching Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers. I had my first experience with a computer–a Radio Shack TRS-80–in 1982, and the first computer my family bought was a Commodore 64 in 1984. Even in 1984, there were still plenty of people who questioned why anyone needed a computer in their home. My introduction to the IBM PC and PC-DOS didn’t happen until 1987.
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Dave Farquhar

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Reactions to Allen’s memoir. And my reactions to them.

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing April 1, 2011January 2, 20251990s, 6502, altair, apple, apple ii, Digital Research, Gary Kildall, IBM, Microsoft Basic, out of the blue, Paul Allen

I hate April Fool’s Day. So nobody thinks this is an April Fool’s joke, I’ll just write more about what I wrote about yesterday, concentrating on media reactions to Paul Allen’s memoir. Then, tomorrow, I’ll revisit a very serious, important topic. Read more

Dave Farquhar

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The almost-was Bill Gates

Dave Farquhar Software October 19, 2004October 3, 20181980s, atari, atari st, Bill Gates, Digital Research, dr dos, Gary Kildall, IBM, intel, pc magazine, QDOS, SCO, video game

Finally, a little bit more detail on the haziest (to me) story in my controversial Why I Dislike Microsoft has appeared: Gary Kildall’s side of the CP/M-QDOS-PC DOS 1.0 story.

The story corroborates what I said, but I wish the story answered more questions.

Dave Farquhar

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