Posted on 02/06/2005 8:58:39 PM PST by Abcdefg
Q: Why did you pick Gary Kildall rather than Bill Gates? A: Gary Kildall is an innovator. Bill Gates is an absolutely brilliant businessman, but he's not an innovator. The first part of Gates's fortune is based on capitalizing on the invention belonging to Gary Kildall. Also, I didn't want to tell stories people already knew. Bill Gates's story is well known. I wanted to tell stories of some people whose contributions had been forgotten. That was Gary Kildall. He's the father of the software industry.
Also, I was attracted to people as democratizers. A lot of them didn't do it for money. They were driven by other considerations. Gary had such an idealistic vision of what computers could do, and he didn't want to become a monopolist.
Q: In your short sidebar in the book about Gates, you say he never invented anything important. Hasn't he made important contributions to the tech industry? A: A lot of people would argue that because his system was put into the PC, we had to endure a decade of crashes. We wouldn't have had to deal with that if Kildall's innovation hadn't been appropriated. Also, I don't like monopolies.
He's the richest man in the world, a brilliant business guy, and ruthless. But at the end of the day, these other people made more significant contributions.
Q: What do you hope to accomplish with your Kildall chapter? A: I wanted to set the record right, the history right. I hated the fact that lies were told about what happened on the day that IBM visited and he supposedly went flying. I want to encourage people to innovate, to go into it. But it's not much fun if you aren't recognized and others take it from you.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessweek.com ...
Harold Evans is a jerk. Like him or not, Bill Gates changed the world. There are plenty of brilliant software developers, but having an idea is only half the battle. You have to put the idea into practice. You have to sell it, if you like.
A lot of the most basic computer software ideas were developed by Xerox. But Xerox apparently never understood their value and never did anything with them. They would still be historical curiosities if people like Gates hadn't taken them and run with them.
Bill Gates' mom got him into IBM. The BIG IDEA was to sell software to Big Blue on a royalty basis and not flat out.
I used both CP/M and MS-DOS; MS-DOS was much better.
CP/M existed before MS -DOS.
In 1981, CP/M-86 was better than PC-DOS.
I thought it was Kildall's wife who screwed up the deal with IBM. Something about not wanting him to sign an NDA.
Anyone have the whole story?
Automobiles existed before Henry Ford.
It takes a Google query to elicit who built the first automobile. But we all know who had the vision, perspicacity and know-how to convert them into an industrial revolution.
For more on DR-DOS vs Microsoft go here:
http://www.maxframe.com/DR/Info/COMPLAIN.HTM
Ford's real innovation was not the car but the modern day assembly line that made the car affordable to the masses.
Then he bucked conventional wisdom of the day and paid his employees enough to be able to afford one.
Which is why we remember Henry Ford...and not Nicolas Cugnot. Just as we remember Thomas Edison and Robert Fulton -- because they produced the first commercial successes.
The same might be said of Bill Gates, as opposed to Gary Kildall. Of course, CP/M pre-dated MS-DOS. But where is CP/M today? What did it have to do with the computer revolution?
You are probably right; we never tried CP/M-86 much because the IBM-PC was already filling a niche in business. I think the IBM-PC was successful over competitors (including Apple) because it was compatible with mainframe protocols, a very important feature to business who spent millions on its mainframes. (As an aside, Apple stuck its tongue out at IBM then and suffered for it.)
Originally, CP/M-86 was intended to be the business-class operating system for IBM PCs. PC-DOS was intended for home use, games, etc. (I think I still have a copy of the fax we received from IBM at our mainframe shop on the day of the PC's introduction in 1981. And I have the first issue PC Magazine, so I'll try to check all that.)
(As an aside, Apple stuck its tongue out at IBM then and suffered for it.)
For the past several years, IBM has been the one suffering in the PC business. But Apple and IBM are good friends now, with IBM manufacturing the G5 and ASIC chips for Macs in New York.
Do you have the third (I think) issue? I still can remember that gal in the blue dress on the cover after all these years; she infuriated the girls in our department (they called her a "bimbo"). :-)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.