more misremberation... it was $240 million to pay later.
Also, I found a citation that says that, contrary to my memory (and I distinctly remember hearing Jack Tramiel himself talking about the "Tramiel Operating System" at a meeting I attended) the name of the OS was TOS for THE Operating System.
I actually think The Operating System is revisionism by Tramiel... apparently he didn't like people pronouncing his name TRA-meal when it is TRA-Mell... it irritated him to hear people say TRA-meal Operating System.
Another reason I think this is that THEOS was already established as an operating system... and it was registered as The Operating System. I used THEOS in some vertical solution applications in the late 70s and 80s... it was a fast, powerful, and small OS for Intel computers that was superb at database management. Atari could not have registered The Operating System as the name for TOS. It was taken.
OMG the guy must have been insane! LOL
thanks for the info on that Atari! imagine going back in time with one of todays laptops, armed with all the emulators! sheesh they would be freaking out!