14 Jan
1998
14 Jan
'98
1:23 p.m.
Tim Shoppa wrote:
Well, Windows is a very recent development compared to
Microsoft's
entire history :-). I've sold several S-100 based systems with 8"
floppy drives, paper tape readers, etc., to Microsoft employees who
are hoping to make backups of the first ten years of Microsoft
software in the archives there. (No, as far as I can tell this
isn't an official Microsoft program. However, most code-writing
employees are allowed to peruse the archives in their Copious
Free Time.) And Paul Allen just bought a XKL (PDP-10 clone), in
part to recreate their original software development environment - I think!
Well, as I recall, Windows was part of the promise when the Tandy 2000
premiered in August or September of 1983. At the time, Bill had been
in the "formal" computer business less than ten years -- he dropped
out of Harvard (voluntarily) in '74 to write software, while I went
from Georgia Tech into the USAF due to lack of funds to
pay for a much
less expensive school (dropping out of Harvard is a sign of
"entrepreneurship" [sp]), enlisting is a sign of poverty -- a lot of
family money provided Microsoft's starting capital no matter what the
official biographies say -- poor people don't drop out of Harvard).
So, at present, the promise (let alone the "reality" of Windows is more
than 60% of the history of Microsoft at minimum (I forget when the name
"Microsoft" happened).
--
Ward Griffiths
Dylan: How many years must some people exist,
before they're allowed to be free?
WDG3rd: If they "must" exist until they're "allowed",
they'll never be free.