As far as the origins of DOS: How many of you have read the chapter on Gary Kildall in "They Made America," by Harold Evans? A used copy can now be had for cheap (bookfinder.com or amazon.com). Evans used Kildall's unpublished memoir as one of his source documents. Of course, folks can always take issue with Kildall's memory (or slant on things), but in the book, Kildall claimed that he _did_ strike a deal with the IBMer's (including a hand shake -- after returning from his prior engagement with Godbout[iirc]). If Gary's story was accurate, well, then this story would be one of the largest cover-up's in the latter 20th Century. Like someone was kind enough to mention on this discussion group, a year and a half ago, Paterson is suing Evans. Grab a copy of the book. It's an amazing story. I cherish my copy... And while we are on the topic of rumors(or perhaps, facts): It's rumored that the Caldera suit (the one that started out as primarily a complaint about M$'s "aard code" (which was pretty much the death knell for DRI) -- ended up morphing into something far greater. It's alleged that the original complaints (by Kildall) were contained in the documentation that Ray Noorda got when he purchased rights to DR-DOS (and related software. eg: CP/M). It's alleged that it was incredibly damning evidence that M$ wanted to keep surpressed at all costs. In very early 2000, Caldera did win its case for a undisclosed amount (I know that there are readily available figures of the award, but some have stated that those figures were intentionally low-balled). True? I don't know, but I sure wish I had access to the 937 _BOXES_ (not pages) of documents that were shredded. It does seem a little _odd_ that these historic documents would be so conveniently turned into toilet paper. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/05/22/sco_pulps_calderams_trial_archives/ I hope the truth eventually comes to light, but I'm not counting on it. Meanwhile, it sure is interesting... Regards, Robert Greenstreet