Re: OT: Microsoft takes on history

["Steve Doiel" <nospam_steved94@attbi.com>]

"Robert Dewar" <dewar@gnat.com> wrote in message
news:5ee5b646.0205250319.324e9ff8@posting.google.com...
> "Frank J. Lhota" <NOSPAM.FrankLho@rcn.com> wrote in message
news:<acmn8f$lmd$1@bob.news.rcn.net>...
>
> > In the first years of the IBM/PC, IBM and Microsoft were indeed
partners. It
> > was this partnership that produced MS-DOS as the standard OS for IBM's
first
> > personal computer.
>
> That's misleading. When the PC came out, it was sold without an operating
> system. I remember well going into the IBM store (IBM was briefly in the
> retail business) and buying a machine, and then I asked about the
operating
> system. I was pointed to a bin marked operating systems. I found UCSD, CPM
> and MS/DOS. I bought a copy of CPM and MS/DOS, and played with both.
MS/DOS
> at that time was purely a microsoft product, and was not specially pushed
> by IBM, although most certainly IBM had help cause it to be produced. In
> practice MS/DOS won out in the market place over the other alternatives,
> because for one thing it was a fraction of the price of the alternatives.

Gee.  I always thought PCDOS was bundled with those old 16k machines, and
the only readily available alternative was CPM86.  I associate UCSD with the
Apple II's and CPM with the old 8080/Z80 based machines.

It was my understanding that IBM paid Microsoft a one-time ridicuously low
fee for distributing PCDOS with their machines.  IBM did not maintain
exclusive rights and Microsoft made big money on selling MSDOS to clone
makers.

But then of course I was a poor student at the time and wasn't in the market
for a PC :-)

SteveD

>
> I think I still have my copy of CPM :-)