Re: [TCLUG:20067] ancient computers

[Philip C Mendelsohn <mend0070@tc.umn.edu>]

On Mon, 7 Aug 2000 Nick.T.Reinking@supervalu.com wrote:

> Woah - sorry for getting in so late on this one, but I've been
> at Sun training all week.  Microsoft's major contracts were
> almost exclusively for programming languages up until
> the days of the IBM PC.  MS didn't do any operating systems
> until then - and even when they did the OS thing for IBM, they
> did it so that they wouldn't lose their language business.  o_O

There's a little more to it than that.  Turns out that it was most likely
a backroom deal, with little Billy Gates' powerful father pulling some
strings.  Prior to that, they couldn't even get business loans, much less 
any significant capital.  (Really - banks and investors wouldn't touch
'em.)  But IBM, of all people!, sees them in the phone book?  Not bloody
likely!

And think about it:

1: IBM was the world's largest computer maker.  (At 2nd largest DEC at
that time, it was rumored to stand for "It's Better Manually.")  Not just
a major computer company, but they had been in business for 70 years at
that point.  You think that they didn't have people that could write a
piddly little OS in Armonk or somewhere?  They managed to make and sell
mainframes and multi-user timesharing systems without Gates & co.

2:	It is known that the first choice for a contracted OS was Digital
Research, (CP/M-86) who turned them down.  (Legend has it that the
president kept two IBM negotiators waiting on the tarmac for 2+ hours
while he flew a small plane recreationally.)

3:	Why not talk to people like Gordon Bell (VMS architect) at Carnegie
Mellon?  Or any school with a decent computer science dept?  Sure, MIT was
kind of home turf for DEC, but that didn't mean there weren't any number
of good computer people.

(Don't forget, the computer industry was not new -- it was like 35 years
old, and computer science was pretty mature in the late '70's.)

4:	Why not talk to almost anyone with *real* experience in
computers?  

5:  A couple of Harvard drop outs writing interpreters for what were at
the time hobbyist computers sure don't mesh with the folks at IBM (who
really never wanted to see users get their hands on computers -- I think
they still lamented the death of punch cards) who wore suits and sold
million dollar systems to banks and airlines.

It isn't generally realized just how far Microsoft came -- nor how much of
it was handed to them on a silver spoon!


Cheers,
Phil

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