20 Nov
2004
20 Nov
'04
4:51 a.m.
On Fri, 2004-11-19 at 19:44, Jim Arnott wrote:
Evans: "Well, I think Gary Kildall is the most
abused of all the
innovators. In justice to him, to his memory, his is the most monstrous
story in the book. We all of us today benefit from Gary Kildall's
innovations, and they were basically snitched from him. He was betrayed
by IBM. He should be celebrated instead of forgotten, and he is the one
I feel the strongest about.
While I tend to dislike "heroization" of people in general, Kildall and
crew did a lot of quality work and weren't particularly egotistic about
it. As I recall (immediately suspicious phrase :-) they just shut up and
made good stuff.
As I mentioned a few days ago, it didn't occur to me at the time,
neophyte that I was, that what stood out in DR products was quality, and
lack of bugginess. Not much from that time was that good (Micropro Int'l
products WordMaster, WordStar come to mind). I didn't appreciate it,
really, at the time.