Microsoft-Paul Allen

[Fred Cisin]

On Sat, 20 Oct 2018, Jim Manley via cctalk wrote:
> IBM wasn't even aware of the penetration of dial-up among consumers
> and very small businesses, . . . 
> Another sign that IBM wasn't confident about the longevity of the PC
> is that they outsourced the development of its OS to Microsoft,
> believing that Microsoft owned CP/M because of an Apple ][ compatible
> product described in the next paragraph.

Very True.
Although to be fair, Microsoft IMMEDIATELY corrected the misperception, 
and sent IBM to DRI.
There was a bit of "culture clash" between IBM and DRI, and IBM CHOSE to 
go back to Microsoft, and get them to do the OS.

There are many conflicting "histories" of the encounter.
The most egregiously lacking in any reality at all was "Pirates Of The 
Valley", which portrayed Steve Jobs and Bill gates as being the computer 
industry, and had Bill Gates going to Florida and COLD CALLING IBM to sell 
them on the idea of having an OS!

What actually happened was that Gary Kildall flew his plane up to Oakland 
to visit Bill Godbout.  (a few reports said that he was off SAILING).
He left the business (in a house in Pacific Grove) in the capable hands of 
his wife.
One report says that he said, "They just want to sign papers for a 
license, let them come to the front desk, like any other customer."

IBM was miffed that Gary Kildall wasn't there for their meeting.
Some reports say that they were also offended by the "California culture", 
with workers barefoot, shirtless, in shorts, women without bras, 
surfboards and bicycles in the hallways, food, plants, cats, and dogs in 
offices, etc.
AND, DRI balked at signing IBMs NDA.
IBM still had at least an unofficial dress code, and wore identical suits.
One report even says that a worker looking out the upstairs window (it is 
a lovely view) when IBM approached, thought that it was a drug raid.



(In 2012, I was in Pacific Grove for a day, so I sought out the house.  I 
met a fellow who had bought it in a foreclosure sale, and found out later 
that it had a history.  He freely let me walk through and see the place.)


> A small business to IBM was much larger than the sizes of businesses
> that Apple was typically serving at that time.  Many are unaware that
> the largest fraction of CP/M licenses ever sold were for the Microsoft
> Softcard for the Apple ][ (about 300,000 sold, all told), not S-100
> systems (somewhere around 150,000 systems built by hobbyists, or sold
> by small manufacturers).  The Softcard was a Z-80 based single-board
> computer that plugged into an Apple ][ slot, equipped with its own
> 80x24 character x line black-and-white video output, RAM, etc., and
> that shared Apple ][  electrical power and floppy disk drives.  The
> Softcard was Microsoft's first really successful product, responsible
> for its first tens of millions of dollars in revenue and profits.
>
> The Softcard was developed by Seattle Computer Products, the same
> two-man company in a Seattle garage that later sold its prototype
> 8086/8088 OS to Microsoft for $50,000.  Microsoft turned around within
> a day and sold it to IBM via a _non-exclusive_ license (a critical
> factor that allowed them to field MS-DOS, their self-branded version
> of IBM's PC-DOS), for $3 million _plus_ about $50 per computer sold
> with PC-DOS.  That model, updated for Windows, is the cash cow that's
> still printing profits for Microsoft to this day.

I'm really not sure about the "within a day".  Although, it certainly 
didn't take LONG.

Also, although I can't name anybody in SCP other than Tim Paterson and Rod 
Brock, I think that there were a few others there.  (And some high school 
kids they hired to assemble boards)

--
Grumpy Ol' Fred     		cisin at xenosoft.com