[Michael Piziak]

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Similar to Steve Jobs talking about the Apple 2, when Steve Wozniak did most of the creating of the Apple 2

[clackers]

Not much substance in that snippet from Australian TV.

The story's pretty well documented.

Gary Kildall can't complain. Forget stories about parachuting, his CPM system priced itself out of customers who went with the hastily put together but cheaper Microsoft offering. Microsoft did not 'do' operating systems at the time, they were program language specialists, it was an expansion they had not planned on.

Today's Windows is not related to the MS DOS back then, and has not been since 2001, although it has an emulator for compatibility.

Instead, it is descended from a mainframe style operating system called VAX VMS from a different company named Digital that is now part of HP.

[gaweidert]

If TI (Texas instruments) had not priced software for it's 99-4 home computer at mainframe prices it would have dominated the home PC market as they were the only one running a 16 bit system at the time. They blew it as did Xerox who designed the first GUI and mouse system.


My TRS-80 Model 4 was pretty good for it's time. I even upgraded it to 128K of RAM. Cost some $2,000 in 1983 dollars. I went nuts over the 5MB hard drive that you could get as an option for ONLY another $2K more. (That was an easy 4 weeks pay back then.) That seemed like infinite storage at the time. The hard drive was the same size as an IBM PC at the time.


I had TRSDOS and CP/M operating systems for it. I learned a lot using the computer. There was a monthly magazine dedicated to the Radio Shack TRS-80 family of computers that often ran 500 pages each issue. The TRS-80 Model 100 was the first notebook computer. Lots of cool innovations back then.

[boriscleto]

Too soon?

Bill Gates Calls Epstein?s Number Just To Hear His Voicemail Again

[Waffles]

Too soon?

Bill Gates Calls Epstein?s Number Just To Hear His Voicemail Again

always the right time for The Onion

[Lord Lucan]

Nice to see Gates on the back foot, he looks angry. I have never admired him and, as with Elon Musk, the public adulation for him is fading, particularly now his Epstein links have been revealed. We now know that that Gates' friendship with Epstein, with visits to his house, was the main reason why Melinda divorced him.

The interviewer gets it wrong as well though. Microsoft didn't get DOS ("for a couple of dollars" *) from Gary Kildall of Digital Research, they got it from a company called Seattle Computer Products where it had been written by Tim Paterson. It is generally believed that Paterson did use some of DR's CP/M source code, but that's another story. Paterson's DOS (originally called QDOS or 86-DOS) did need porting to the new IBM PC and Gates hired Paterson to do that. No doubt Gates looked over his shoulder, but Gates certainly did not write DOS.

* A few $ tens of thousands actually. SCP later sued MS for misrepresentation and it was settled out of court for about $1,000,000 - peanuts compared with what MS made from it. If IBM had taken their own PC more seriously they could have done a bit of research and bought DOS from SCP directly.

[RobA_Oz]

Nice to see Gates on the back foot, he looks angry. I have never admired him and, as with Elon Musk, the public adulation for him is fading, particularly now his Epstein links have been revealed. We now know that that Gates' friendship with Epstein, with visits to his house, was the main reason why Melinda divorced him.

The interviewer gets it wrong as well though. Microsoft didn't get DOS ("for a couple of dollars" *) from Gary Kildall of Digital Research, they got it from a company called Seattle Computer Products where it had been written by Tim Paterson. It is generally believed that Paterson did use some of DR's CP/M source code, but that's another story. Paterson's DOS (originally called QDOS or 86-DOS) did need porting to the new IBM PC and Gates hired Paterson to do that. No doubt Gates looked over his shoulder, but Gates certainly did not write DOS.

* A few $ tens of thousands actually. SCP later sued MS for misrepresentation and it was settled out of court for about $1,000,000 - peanuts compared with what MS made from it. If IBM had taken their own PC more seriously they could have done a bit of research and bought DOS from SCP directly.

Gates has been the subject of attacks by people wrapped up in conspiracy nonsense for some time. Melinda Gates has publicly said that the reason for their separation was her lack of trust after his affair with a colleague, not his dealings with Epstein, which as far as anyone really knows could have been about collaboration on philanthropic projects (Epstein was a complex, even paradoxical character). He certainly never travelled to Epstein’s private island, as flight logs from Epstein’s pilots revealed. Gates has been unfairly attacked for his promotion of vaccination and of renewable energy, and his enemies are sometimes quite unscrupulous, but some mud obviously sticks.

Having said all that, I am no great admirer of his dealings at Microsoft, and largely gave up on their products some years ago, but critics should get their facts straight about his role in Microsoft, not to mention his public and private life.

[Lord Lucan]

Gates has been the subject of attacks by people wrapped up in conspiracy nonsense for some time.
...
...critics should get their facts straight about his role in Microsoft, not to mention his public and private life.

These are not conspiracy theories, these are facts :

From the New York Times :
Bill Gates Met With Jeffrey Epstein Many Times, Despite His Past - The New York Times

and unlike many others [friends of Epstein], Mr. Gates started the relationship after Mr. Epstein was convicted of sex crimes.
...
In fact, beginning in 2011, Mr. Gates met with Mr. Epstein on numerous occasions — including at least three times at Mr. Epstein’s palatial Manhattan townhouse, and at least once staying late into the night, according to interviews with more than a dozen people familiar with the relationship, as well as documents reviewed by The New York Times.
...
“His lifestyle is very different and kind of intriguing although it would not work for me,” Mr. Gates emailed colleagues in 2011 ...
...
a spokeswoman for Mr. Gates, said he “was referring only to the unique décor of the Epstein residence — and Epstein’s habit of spontaneously bringing acquaintances in to meet Mr. Gates.”

Yeah, OK, he visited Epstein's house to look at the decor - and meet Epstein's acquaintances.


From Newsweek :
Bill Gates' Ex-Wife Melinda Says His Relationship With Jeffrey Epstein Hurt Marriage

French Gates [Melinda] has said in an interview with Gayle King on CBS Mornings that Microsoft co-founder Gates' frequent meetings with disgraced financier Epstein negatively impacted their marriage.
...
Gates acknowledged that he had an affair with an employee at Microsoft. The company asked its board to investigate the relationship shortly before Gates' 2020 resignation from the board.

Gates was always a womaniser, despite his unattractive looks and obnoxious personality.


From Business Insider :
History of DOS

Gates shared plenty of ideas with IBM and even told them he'd write an operating system for them. ... Instead of writing one, Gates reached out to Paterson and purchased 86-DOS from him, allegedly for $50,000.

The history of DOS is well known. Gates did not write it.

[luftfluss]

For the absolutely heinous crimes Jeffrey Epstein committed, I think we would need something more substantive than "guilt by association" in order to implicate Bill Gates.

We do know that he has committed billions of dollars to philanthropic endeavors.

We also know that he was a ruthless monopolistic technocrat who has exhibited behaviors associated with a god complex.

History is littered with individuals who were both sinner and saint.

[Rondec]

I thought Bill Gates and Steve Jobs both stole a chunk of their GUI from Xerox. Stole is probably too strong a word. Xerox was way ahead of everyone else when it came to designing PCs and creating software for them. The problem was that Xerox wasn't really interested in that -- they were interested in printers and copiers. A lot of people, including Steve and Bill, saw their interface and primitive mouse, but of course it was Steve and Bill that actually launched mainstream products that used these ideas.

[boriscleto]

I thought Bill Gates and Steve Jobs both stole a chunk of their GUI from Xerox. Stole is probably too strong a word. Xerox was way ahead of everyone else when it came to designing PCs and creating software for them. The problem was that Xerox wasn't really interested in that -- they were interested in printers and copiers. A lot of people, including Steve and Bill, saw their interface and primitive mouse, but of course it was Steve and Bill that actually launched mainstream products that used these ideas.

Xerox shipped a workstation called the Xerox 8010 Information System in 1981 (the software was called Star). It was developed from the Alto system that Jobs and Gates were given demonstrations of. It had the things we consider a PC today, bitmapped display, a window-based graphical user interface, icons, folders, mouse (two-button), Ethernet networking, file servers, print servers, and e-mail. It cost over $16,000 in 1981...that was just one workstation, the entire system was about $75,000 (about a quarter of a million $ today).

Within a few years you could buy a couple Macintosh computers and a LaserWriter, and network them with LocalTalk, for less than the cost of one Star workstation...and Aldus Pagemaker made desktop publishing a thing.

[Lord Lucan]

I think we would need something more substantive than "guilt by association" in order to implicate Bill Gates.

Indeed, we cannot of course condemn him on the evidence. What stands out however is that Gates associated with Epstein after the latter's criminal history was known, and associated the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with him (because Gates claims his visits to Epstein were in that capacity). One would think that Gates or his Foundation would have done some background investigation into a potential major donor/associate before Gates "had dinners" with him. Either there was more going on, or Gates is not as smart as many people make him out to be; let us be charitable and make the latter assumption.

What irritates me is Gates being put on a pedestal as a supposed genius/saint/god/whatever. There are things I give Gates credit for, and even share some of his opinions, but judging by his performance at the interviews I have seen I have known more intelligent people. He is intelligent, but no genius. I don't judge people by their wealth or how much they can afford to give away, but I consider Gates' best achivement was writing his BASIC interpreter for the Altair 8800 - although it is believed that he had a copy of the source code for the PDP/10 BASIC to hand even so.

His Altair BASIC was adapted to the PC as QBASIC with probably his personal involvement, but after that he had a company to run. Microsoft reached the stratosphere through the DOS deal with IBM, the deal not made because of Gates' "genius" but because of IBM's and Digital Research's combined stupidity.

As for philanthropy, what else can you do with so much money?Gates could buy a small nation, but there are none for sale. He could buy a new car every few seconds but wouldn't have the time to even to open the driver's doors. If I had billions I would give a large part to charity myself (but not ones Gates chooses), and I'm no saint.

[boriscleto]

His Altair BASIC was adapted to the PC as QBASIC with probably his personal involvement, but after that he had a company to run. Microsoft reached the stratosphere through the DOS deal with IBM, the deal not made because of Gates' "genius" but because of IBM's and Digital Research's combined stupidity.

And when the Homebrew Computer Club began circulating copies of Altair BASIC Gates penned an Open Letter to Hobbyists complaining about software piracy...when he and Paul Allen had stolen time on someone else's computer to write it...

[Just1MoreDave]

A more recent Bill Gates is Elon Musk. Two guys started Tesla in 2003, Musk just happened to have $6.5 million to invest in it after getting elbowed out of PayPal by Peter Thiel. The two founders were out by 2009.

[GUB]

A more recent Bill Gates is Elon Musk. Two guys started Tesla in 2003, Musk just happened to have $6.5 million to invest in it after getting elbowed out of PayPal by Peter Thiel. The two founders were out by 2009.

As a reasonably uninformed observer I see BG , Zuck etc of that era as merely people who lucked in at a pivotal time in our technological revolution. Not visionaries or high skill sets - more like people who have won a lottery and are totally ill equipped to handle the proceeds. Kim DC is a NZ speciality in this category. People like this use their wealth to force their mediocre world view on the rest of us. It is really sad how their domination in MS FB Twitter have have meant these products have fallen short of their potential as a communication medium just for the financial gain of these short sighted idiots. Musk is different - like him or hate him - he is a visionary and has the potential to be the man of the century or the greatest megalomaniac of all time.