The Rise of DOS: How Microsoft Got the IBM PC OS Contract
IBM and its lawyers met with Kildall's wife, Dorothy McEwen, and
presented Digital Research with a one-sided non-disclosure agreement,
which the company refused to sign. Later, Sams would tell the authors of
Hard Drive that IBM just couldn't get Kildall to agree to spend
the money to develop a 16-bit version of CP/M in the tight schedule IBM
required. But whatever the reason, it's clear that IBM left Digital
Research without an agreement on an operating system.
IBM
communicated its problem to Microsoft later that month, and Microsoft's
Gates, Paul Allen, and Kay Nishi apparently debated what to do about the
program. Allen knew of an alternative: Tim Paterson of Seattle Computer
Products (SCP) had earlier built an 8086-based prototype computer and
while he was waiting for CP/M to be ported to the 8086, he created a
rough 16-bit operating system for it. Paterson called it QDOS for Quick
and Dirty Operating System, and according to Allen, it all fit within
6K. (It would later be renamed 86-DOS, and sometimes referred to as
SCP-DOS.)
IBM and its lawyers met with Kildall's wife, Dorothy McEwen, and
presented Digital Research with a one-sided non-disclosure agreement,
which the company refused to sign. Later, Sams would tell the authors of
Hard Drive that IBM just couldn't get Kildall to agree to spend
the money to develop a 16-bit version of CP/M in the tight schedule IBM
required. But whatever the reason, it's clear that IBM left Digital
Research without an agreement on an operating system.
IBM
communicated its problem to Microsoft later that month, and Microsoft's
Gates, Paul Allen, and Kay Nishi apparently debated what to do about the
program. Allen knew of an alternative: Tim Paterson of Seattle Computer
Products (SCP) had earlier built an 8086-based prototype computer and
while he was waiting for CP/M to be ported to the 8086, he created a
rough 16-bit operating system for it. Paterson called it QDOS for Quick
and Dirty Operating System, and according to Allen, it all fit within
6K. (It would later be renamed 86-DOS, and sometimes referred to as
SCP-DOS.)
Hello, my name is Jack Sparrow. I'm a 50 year old self-employed Pirate from the Caribbean.
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