21 Aug
2015
21 Aug
'15
11:34 p.m.
On Fri, 21 Aug 2015, Geoff Oltmans wrote:
The way I've heard the story before, was that
Kildall was surprised when
he finally saw the price sheet for the pricing of CP/M-86 vs PC-DOS. I
I've heard that, but it was from people who did not think that the
original contact with IBM was mishandled.
guess we can either interpret that as he priced it too
high and had no
idea what MS were charging for PC-DOS, or that IBM deliberately priced
them out of the market.
It could have been either. I tend towards thinking that it was DRI's
mistake. I do not have the business experience nor acumen to have any
idea how much lead time there was on pricing, nor how long a price change
would take.
When the PC came out (August 1981), I got MS-DOS, is was the only thing
available. I assumed that once it was available that CP/M-86 would become
the standard. When it came out, at a high price, I STILL thought that it
would become the standard eventually, but stayed with MS-DOS waiting for
that. I really don't think that I was alone in that thinking. But, the
long delay, "waiting for CP/M-86 to become the standard", was long enough
for MS-DOS to become solidly entrenched, and in the early versions, there
was no obvious advantage to justify switching. When CP/M-86 came down in
price, it was too late. (and maybe it should have come down ALL the way
to MS-DOS price ($60? V $40 was the later price))