ParaHandy
Well-Known Member
hmm .. 30 years ago he reckoned information, history, everything would be lost when you perchance to wander into a black hole ... and that was before Bill Gates wrote his first operating system ...
Hawkins Paradox ...
- Thread starter ParaHandy
- Start date
Twister_Ken
Well-Known Member
Dunno, MSDOS has gotta be 30 years old, Shirley?
savageseadog
Well-Known Member
Bill Gates ripped off his first operating system for the PC from anther player
ChrisE
Well-Known Member
which one, I'm intrigued? I always thought that he and his mate in the garage created the OS and which was used by IBM and the rest is history.
ChrisE
Well-Known Member
Enstone\'s paradox
all commonsense is lost when people wander into this forum.
all commonsense is lost when people wander into this forum.
Magic
Well-Known Member
Re: Enstone\'s paradox
If you are so inclined the History of MS-DOS can be found here http://www.digitalresearch.biz/HISZMSD.HTM
If you are so inclined the History of MS-DOS can be found here http://www.digitalresearch.biz/HISZMSD.HTM
G
Guest
Guest
the old story ...
Gates at College .... another couple of guys come up with a Disk system for the new PC that people are taliking about soon to hit the shelves .... Gates and his mate buy the disk of these two ...
Another guy - name escapes me at this time - is also working on a system .... but his is much better.
Now we have Gates with the Dos 1 .... based on the assumption that PC's will never have more than 640Kb memory ... in fact the machine it was written for the PC Junior was working on possibly 64K .... so the op memory is put at TOP of the memory available, or max 640 Kb as available.
We have the other guy who is a little more clever and he puts the op system at thew bottom of the memory pile .... creates DR-DOS ..... (digital research)
IBM are looking for the op system to load on the new machine ...
Story goes that DR-Dos guy is out and fails to return the telephone call ... Gates in the meantime has !! Rest is history.
But is it true ??? I don't think that Gates will ever allow anyone to know the truth ... and also never admit that the story reckons he paid $50 for the DOS from the college guys ...
The story also says that Gates has never written one bit of code .... ????
All I can say is he has a lot to answer for - but also let's be honest - he has been incredibly clever in getting to where he is now ......
Yes - I'm jealous of all that money !!!
Gates at College .... another couple of guys come up with a Disk system for the new PC that people are taliking about soon to hit the shelves .... Gates and his mate buy the disk of these two ...
Another guy - name escapes me at this time - is also working on a system .... but his is much better.
Now we have Gates with the Dos 1 .... based on the assumption that PC's will never have more than 640Kb memory ... in fact the machine it was written for the PC Junior was working on possibly 64K .... so the op memory is put at TOP of the memory available, or max 640 Kb as available.
We have the other guy who is a little more clever and he puts the op system at thew bottom of the memory pile .... creates DR-DOS ..... (digital research)
IBM are looking for the op system to load on the new machine ...
Story goes that DR-Dos guy is out and fails to return the telephone call ... Gates in the meantime has !! Rest is history.
But is it true ??? I don't think that Gates will ever allow anyone to know the truth ... and also never admit that the story reckons he paid $50 for the DOS from the college guys ...
The story also says that Gates has never written one bit of code .... ????
All I can say is he has a lot to answer for - but also let's be honest - he has been incredibly clever in getting to where he is now ......
Yes - I'm jealous of all that money !!!
Sans Bateau
Well-Known Member
Re: the old story ...
I can remember the days in the late 80's, selling PC's.
£2500 odd for an IBM 640k box, mono screen and key board, we 'threw in the DOS' as 'a gesture or good will', (they didnt know it came with it).
Then you asked the question "what software would you like", in reply "what do I need". "Well Wordstar is a good wordprocessing product, but a new one, Wordperfect is getting very popular" , "Ok lets go for Wordperfect".
A daisy wheel printer or dot matrix for the adventurous!
Loads of profit, lots of commission, then along came Dell and PC World.
I can remember the days in the late 80's, selling PC's.
£2500 odd for an IBM 640k box, mono screen and key board, we 'threw in the DOS' as 'a gesture or good will', (they didnt know it came with it).
Then you asked the question "what software would you like", in reply "what do I need". "Well Wordstar is a good wordprocessing product, but a new one, Wordperfect is getting very popular" , "Ok lets go for Wordperfect".
A daisy wheel printer or dot matrix for the adventurous!
Loads of profit, lots of commission, then along came Dell and PC World.
Evadne
Well-Known Member
Re: the old story ...
If you lost sleep, or ever worried, that you were ripping people off, spare a thought for those of us who upgraded from BBC masters to the Elonex 286. It made a very good doorstop.
If you lost sleep, or ever worried, that you were ripping people off, spare a thought for those of us who upgraded from BBC masters to the Elonex 286. It made a very good doorstop.
Blueboatman
Well-Known Member
Re: PC Hunger
I decided 2 years ago, enough was enough, went out and bought a Big Mac , so no more Microshaft messes for us thankyou very much Mr gates ,go forth and multiply ( or words to that effect)
I would never go back now!
I decided 2 years ago, enough was enough, went out and bought a Big Mac , so no more Microshaft messes for us thankyou very much Mr gates ,go forth and multiply ( or words to that effect)
I would never go back now!
Lakesailor
Well-Known Member
Re: PC Hunger
Quite agree. Although I've just upgraded my PC I have a Mac lurking in the garage. I've just been bashing my Mac in there now. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif
Quite agree. Although I've just upgraded my PC I have a Mac lurking in the garage. I've just been bashing my Mac in there now. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif
Twister_Ken
Well-Known Member
Re: PC Hunger
iMac 20inch, 2Ghz G5, IGb RAM, MACOS 10.4.
Phoaar!
iMac 20inch, 2Ghz G5, IGb RAM, MACOS 10.4.
Phoaar!
phatcat1
Well-Known Member
Re: PC Hunger
Is that similar to a sinclair ZX81,
They were the dogs danglies once!
Is that similar to a sinclair ZX81,
They were the dogs danglies once!
Blueboatman
Well-Known Member
Re: PC Hunger
------------------------------------
''Is that similar to a sinclair ZX81?"
-------------------------------------
Is that the one that put Apollo on the moon then?
------------------------------------
''Is that similar to a sinclair ZX81?"
-------------------------------------
Is that the one that put Apollo on the moon then?
Blueboatman
Well-Known Member
Re: PC Hunger
-----------"I have a Mac lurking in the garage. I've just been bashing my Mac in there now"-------------
I thought thats whay goes on in the Scottish Parliament..(With sincere apologies to Capt Parahandy ,from whose original thread topic I have wandered off course somewhat )
-----------"I have a Mac lurking in the garage. I've just been bashing my Mac in there now"-------------
I thought thats whay goes on in the Scottish Parliament..(With sincere apologies to Capt Parahandy ,from whose original thread topic I have wandered off course somewhat )
Blueboatman
Well-Known Member
Re: PC Hunger
-----------------------------------------
"iMac 20inch, 2Ghz G5, IGb RAM, MACOS 10.4.
Phoaar! " Quote
-----------------------------------------
Cor...That's a big one Mr !
-----------------------------------------
"iMac 20inch, 2Ghz G5, IGb RAM, MACOS 10.4.
Phoaar! " Quote
-----------------------------------------
Cor...That's a big one Mr !
gandy
Well-Known Member
Re: the old story ...
Originally "Intergalactic Digital Research Inc". Developers of the mainstream 8 bit operating system CP/M.
Tony S
Originally "Intergalactic Digital Research Inc". Developers of the mainstream 8 bit operating system CP/M.
Tony S
Birdseye
Well-Known Member
Re: the old story ...
For some reason people always seem to focus on the technical side ie the invention of the product.
I dont think it matters in the slightest where MSDos came from. Technical people can be trained and hired / bought. What is a much greater achievement than making the tech development is the building up of the business that exploits it. A traditional British area of weakness.
Business creation a la Microsoft is an incredibly rare event. Attempts to buy that business building skill on the open market have with few exceptions resulted in failure. (And the golden handshake that seems to go with failure, but thats a different issue.)
Soi I applaud Bill Gates wherever he got his software from. Even though I think his empire should be broken up as a monopoly.
For some reason people always seem to focus on the technical side ie the invention of the product.
I dont think it matters in the slightest where MSDos came from. Technical people can be trained and hired / bought. What is a much greater achievement than making the tech development is the building up of the business that exploits it. A traditional British area of weakness.
Business creation a la Microsoft is an incredibly rare event. Attempts to buy that business building skill on the open market have with few exceptions resulted in failure. (And the golden handshake that seems to go with failure, but thats a different issue.)
Soi I applaud Bill Gates wherever he got his software from. Even though I think his empire should be broken up as a monopoly.
G
Guest
Guest
Evolution ....
Started with a Commodore Vic20 ... then dabbled with C64 ....
Found that I could write a better survey report on an Amstrad ... yep the disk in the front of the monitor ones ... with CP/M OS .....
Then bought Bull Honeywell Twin floppy machine X86 ....
But then along came DAN Technology ... and I splashed out on a 286 .... a flyer !! with 5.25 and 3.5 floppies ... and when I was flush with dosh ... went wild and had a 40Mb HDD fitted ... Boy I was away with the heavens then ...
I still have that Dan case ... but now with a 486DX board in it and it still works !!
Well Win95 came along and the old 486 started to show slow ... so it was a PI ..... boy was I proud ... but then it all started to go downhill as Gates was getting his revenge for all that fun and excitement ....
Well the rest of the story is familiar .... as each upgrade happens - so the machine is fast shown to be out of date and need updateing to latest spec ....
It's funny that I still have the C64, the old 486, my 486 notebook, etc. ...... all collecting dust in boxes ....
As to software - I have a huge collection on 5.25 and 3.5 disks ............. including the best game ever - Wing Commander ..... and that classic F-19 Stealth Fighter ....
Those were the days .... MS Dos and command line typing .... then came Win 3 .... and then Win for Work Groups 3.11 !!!! What a trash-can of garbage !! Windows I mean ... Dos was ok ... still revert to command line odd times now !!
But I had DR-Dos 6 on my later machines just before Win 95 etc. - far superior to MS-Dos and had Superstor and a GUI front end that "felt-right" ....
Started with a Commodore Vic20 ... then dabbled with C64 ....
Found that I could write a better survey report on an Amstrad ... yep the disk in the front of the monitor ones ... with CP/M OS .....
Then bought Bull Honeywell Twin floppy machine X86 ....
But then along came DAN Technology ... and I splashed out on a 286 .... a flyer !! with 5.25 and 3.5 floppies ... and when I was flush with dosh ... went wild and had a 40Mb HDD fitted ... Boy I was away with the heavens then ...
I still have that Dan case ... but now with a 486DX board in it and it still works !!
Well Win95 came along and the old 486 started to show slow ... so it was a PI ..... boy was I proud ... but then it all started to go downhill as Gates was getting his revenge for all that fun and excitement ....
Well the rest of the story is familiar .... as each upgrade happens - so the machine is fast shown to be out of date and need updateing to latest spec ....
It's funny that I still have the C64, the old 486, my 486 notebook, etc. ...... all collecting dust in boxes ....
As to software - I have a huge collection on 5.25 and 3.5 disks ............. including the best game ever - Wing Commander ..... and that classic F-19 Stealth Fighter ....
Those were the days .... MS Dos and command line typing .... then came Win 3 .... and then Win for Work Groups 3.11 !!!! What a trash-can of garbage !! Windows I mean ... Dos was ok ... still revert to command line odd times now !!
But I had DR-Dos 6 on my later machines just before Win 95 etc. - far superior to MS-Dos and had Superstor and a GUI front end that "felt-right" ....