Tim Paterson
Suit may revise chapter on tech history: Origins of MS-DOS — Curiously nobody argued back then that this OS was a copy. And there are a lot more websites making this claim today. Why sue now? What is Paterson up to? What’s the point? Personal pride? I suppose the use of the term “slapdash” wasn’t appreciated. Then again, he’s the one who referred to it as “quick and dirty.”
At issue is a chapter in the book that calls Paterson’s program “a slapdash clone” and “rip-off” of CP/M, an operating system developed in the 1970s by Seattle native Gary Kildall, founder of Digital Research Inc. Paterson’s suit disputes that claim and a long list of related assertions in the 16-page chapter on Kildall, who died in 1994 at age 52.
The intent of the chapter, Evans said yesterday, was to “correct history” and set the record straight on Kildall’s role as a software pioneer. Evans based key elements of the chapter on Kildall’s unpublished memoirs.
Evans said he stands by the facts as portrayed in the book and plans to “enter a vigorous defense” against Paterson’s lawsuit.
But Paterson, now 48 and retired in Redmond, said the chapter misrepresents history. One possible resolution, he said yesterday, could include the release of a new edition of the book correcting the alleged misrepresentations outlined in his suit.
related links
Hisotry of MS-DOS
Another write-up here.
Timeline of events
Photo archive attached to timeline.
Father of DOS — Story found on Paterson’s own website
Interview with Gordon Eubanks on the topic.
John, the article answers your question about “why now.”
So, we’re only talking about maybe six months.
You can’t even keep up with Microsoft anymore. Between all the cracked databases, dumb game boxes, nutty passport schemes and announcements about this way or that way they are going and I’m supposted to be going, I quit. Microsoft is just a keep the stock afloat battleship. None of the Windows tech talk even makes sense and it isn’t about the user or the PC. It’s all about Bills vision for where we need to go with our digital lives. I don’t even care. The PC industry is screwed up, starting at the top. At least HP could dump their visionary CEO. Microsoft is headed for an iceberg ahead, with Captain Bill at the helm. The country has problems and Microsoft isn’t helping solve them. It seems to be adding to them. I have my own problems, so I don’t have time to waste listening to what they are going to serve up next as the big thing. The hell with them, they’re just not that important in the big scheme of things.
“Microsoft is proud of the foundational role we played in the industry and for delivering the combination of technical and business acumen that proved to be the catalyst for the revolution that followed.”
*burp*
Paterson appears himself in Cringley’s “Triumph of the Nerds” calling his OS “Quick and Dirty Operating System” and describes how he bought a CP/M manual and set out to write a clone. He loses. Case closed.
I believe all this stuff about the history of MS-DOS is wrong. My experience suggests it all began on a box developed by Intel to sell the 8080 chip after their success with the 4004 and 8008. At Texas Instruments, believe it or not, we ordered numbes of the box call Intellec by Intel around 1975 which included the 8080 on a motherboard with 8 in floppy, an OS call Isis which became DOS and a Pl/1 compiler Intel called PL/M. The Intellec box was great because it worked and could be obtained on a real timeline. The PL/M compiler was amazing and ran native as well as cross compiling on a mainframe. I suspect IBM paid for something done about 6 years prior. Intel also had a real operating system called IRMX but we at TI were unable to obtain it.
“And in 1996, John C. Dvorak revealed another mystery: He mentioned that he knew someone who had a very early copy of MS-DOS that contained an easter egg that printed Gary Kildall’s name. CP/M had the same easter egg. I’ve looked, but I’ve never heard anything else about that story.” – http://dfarq.homeip.net/article/1197
Dvorak — is there any truth to this??? Please respond!!! DO YOU REALLY KNOW SOMEONE WHO CLAIMS THEY CAN EVOKE THE KILDALL NAME FROM AN EARLY COPY OF MS-DOS?
This has become an urban legand — one you are now a critical part of… please dispell what’s going on. DID MS-DOS have a CP/M / Gary Kildall Easter Egg in it or NOT?
Thanks!