Andy, here is what I posted a bit over a year ago, from Business Week, 4/27/97, URL and everything, accessible after free registration.
From WHY THE FASTEST CHIP DIDN'T WIN businessweek.com
"Still, the future of Alpha--and Digital--increasingly depended on NT. And Digital's relationship with Microsoft was growing more complex. In mid-1993, Digital engineers looking into early versions of NT noticed that some portions of the program bore a striking resemblance to an advanced operating system called Mica that Digital had developed, but canceled in 1988. Mica was the brainchild of Dave Cutler, a former Digital software star who joined Microsoft in 1988 and was now the chief architect of NT.
Palmer decided that Digital had a legal claim against Microsoft. But, insiders say, instead of filing suit, Palmer chose to use the threat of legal action to spur Microsoft into improving Alpha's prospects. Microsoft execs won't comment, saying it concerns legal matters.
Oops, I can't resist an ironic aside from the present: Bwaaaahahahahahaha! Microsoft execs have been really reticent about discussing legal matters lately. We must be free to innovate! By hook or crook! Back to our regularly scheduled program. . .
Still, Palmer's gambit appears to have worked. By the spring of 1995 the two companies hammered out details of a broad agreement for Digital to provide NT network installation services for Microsoft. Announced with great fanfare by Digital in August, 1995, the alliance included payments by Microsoft estimated at $65 million to $100 million to help train Digital NT technicians.
So no, Cutler didn't steal VMS code, there was a lot of VAX assembler there, maybe some BLISS. Yes, DEC might have sued, they chose a different course, still a significant amount of money was apparently involved. Another one of those things casting an ironic light on the sanctity of intellectual property law versus the horrible injustice of antitrust. Reggie will no doubt tell us BW just made the story up to sell advertising.
And, as I usually say, it's not that big a deal, the Mica code probably was never going to be used for anything by DEC, and there's probably not much of it around in NT anymore, either. Just another part of standard Microsoft business practice, that's all.
As to the rest of your list, pretty debatable, I'll leave it at that.
Cheers, Dan. |
