Gulp! ... Here goes ... Don't everyone bash me for posting this one at once.
The Transformers
The $100,000 Monopoly
Lisa DiCarlo, 05.10.02, 12:00 PM ET
Is there any deal within the realm of technology that has had a more profound impact on so many companies and people than Microsoft buying the disk operating system (DOS) from the Seattle Computer Company more than twenty years ago? The answer is an unequivocal no.
The story goes like this: In 1980, IBM (nyse: IBM - news - people ) was working on its first personal computer and needed an operating system to run it. Until then, computers made by different companies all used a different operating system (OS). A firm called Digital Research had developed an OS called CP/M, or control program for microcomputers, which ran on computers from various vendors.
(More at Forbes.com)
forbes.com
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The way I remember it, the Suits from IBM were after CP/M but were thwarted when the founder of Digital Research, the now late Dr. Gary A. Kildall, refused to reschedule his golf game. They even tried to meet with him out on the course, but he refused.
The only reason they were seeing Bill Gates was as a favor, and only to interview him for a position with IBM. The trip to Digital Research from Boca Raton was supposed to be the coup de mantre, or masterstroke, for the middle management execs. Upper management at IBM figured the personal computer craze to be a passing fad. These Suits, trying to create a new division in a conservative corporation were determined to prove them wrong. They needed a great OS fast. CP/M, at the time, was fast becoming the standard OS for serious business applications on micros.- The visit with Bill Gates was the coup d'oeil-, or brief side trip, which turned into the coup de theatre, or dramatic turn of events.- The favor had been initiated by Bill's Mother, who wanted him to get a steady job.
The job interview went well and in saying goodbye to the Suits, young Bill, as a last minute afterthought, asked them if there was anything else he could do for them. They responded halfheartedly, not unless he could find them a DOS like CP/M and fast. The next thirty seconds was Bill's a coup sur, or masterstroke. He responded that he might be able to find one and took their number.
So you see, it was an accident of history spawned by a Mother's love that was the Transformer. The article's interpretive view of the past events of corporations is a vague generality weakened in fact by mile/years of space/time.
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I wrote this almost entirely from memory, as you no doubt can tell. During the writing, I ran across the following resource: maxframe.com
I didn't have time to read a lot and see if my facts were corroborated and correct. My memory of Bill's a coup sur is from reading a book around 1985. I don't remember the title.
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