Microsoft and Unix/Linux (Myths and IP)

[James Knott]

Paul King wrote:
>> | * Microsoft invented DOS
>> |
>>     
>
> True, if you really do mean DOS (before MS was "born", Gates designed QDOS 
> ("Quick-and Dirty OS") which IBM rejected, and which later formed the first 
> product MS put out. Isn't that how the story went? Was IBM-DOS first?
>   
Gates didn't design QDOS.  He bought it, after he sold it to IBM. IIRC,
PC-DOS predated MS-DOS, but not by much.  QDOS was created by Tim
Patterson of Seattle Computer Products, as a hardware development
system, which could be used while waiting for CP/M-86 to show up. 
Because it wasn't originally intended to be a released product, it had a
lot of deficiencies, which persisted in PC-DOS & MS-DOS.  Incidentally,
because of this, DOS 1 system calls were virtually identical to CP/M, as
QDOS was intended to emulate it.  In short, Bill Gates sold IBM a
substandard product, before it was even his to sell.  It would have been
interesting to see what would have happened, had SCP decided not to sell
QDOS to him.


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