The DOS Story and Gary Kildall

by TechWhiz

Gary Kildall-Father of PC Operating System

The definition for Disk Operating System? It is a name given to an operating system.
Questions is what did we have before Operating Systems came and what is main function.
The thing is computers were using binary numbers 10 or machine language to get instructions. Thing is machine language was difficult and there was an interface needed between humans and the computer. A simpler one that is.
So who invented 1st Operating System?
Early Mainframes did not have operating systems. If you are wondering what a mainframe is? Mainframes are computers with high capabilities. They are designed to process 1 trillion transactions per second! IBM was connected with early mainframes.
The 1st Operating System was GM-NAA I/O, developed by GM in 1956. But we are interested in Personal computers. (PC).
Personal computers (PC)
The first PC came out in 1975 as kits. Then 1977, lots of OS came.
• Apple II
• TRS-80 by RadioShack. I thought these guys were famous for just calculators.
• PET by Commodore
• CP/M by Digital Research.

So we are interested in CP/M. It stands for Control Program/Montor was developed by Gray Kidall of Digital Research in 1974.
Seattle Computer Products or SCP was a company who started making their own Operation System.
Tim Paterson a programmer with SCP was building CP/M” like Operating system from Scratch in assembly from 8086 platform.
They called it QDOS or “Quick and Dirty Disk Operating System” or they named it philosophically (in our opinion). This was similar to Gary’s CP/M.
QDOS became functional by July 1980 and was later renamed to 86-DOS.
Take a break here.

IBM begins OS Race.

The guys who started it all was IBM. We learn from this story is important. It is not just building great technology but Information is the key.
Tech companies could learn much from this story.
Bill Gates was known for Programming Languages in the market.
He knew three languages by the time he finished Harvard:
• Basic
• Fortran
• LISP
Bill Gates and Paul Allen started Microsoft in 1975. Their revenue in 1976 was 16,000 US$ and by 1978 make a revenue of 1 Million Dollars.
The Year 1977, Apple II was introduced and PC market was worth 2 billion Dollars.
IBM sees this as, now it is time to get into PC business.
IBM a big company then had a PC assembled. They originally into make main frames.
By 1980 IBM saw PC industry as not just something of a hobby but real business.
At that time neither Steve Jobs nor Bill Gates were not that big names except guys who were experts with technical things and programming.
Except Steve, since Apple was well known then. IBM had made the PC but thing was, they needed software to run it.
In 1980 Bill Gates is asked by IBM to make them an Operating system. Well thing is Bill Gates at time was not making any operating system or was he interested.
Forwards IBM to Digital Research
Bill Gates referred to his friend’s company Digital Research who was making Operating Systems.
His name was Gary Kildall.
Gary had built first universal operating system by 1971 and marketed by 1972 by name of CP/M.
His company was making a revenue of 5.4 Million Dollars per Year. At that time Gary was much richer than Bill Gates.
Bill Gates call his friend Gary and says:
"Gary, I’ve got some people coming around to visit, treat them right, they’re important guys."
Bill could not go into the details because, he had signed an NDA Agreement with IBM.
The NDA agreement with Bill Gates was like this:
“IBM is allowed to take any and all information and do whatever they want with it, and the other party must keep everything a secret; you cannot even disclose that you met with IBM.”

The meeting with IBM and Digital Research

In 1980 total revenue of IBM was 3.65 Billion US$.
Gary went of flying with jet since he did not take Bill Gates call seriously. Programmers are sometimes eccentric!
IBM businessman with black suits come to Digital Research and Gary is not there.
The IBM guys wanted Gary’s wife to sign a NDA document (Non-Disclosure Agreement).
She refuses and IBM’s MIB goes back, angry at Gary.
This was missing the deal of the century!
The lesson we learn here are:
• Do not be proud.
• Give respect where it is due, even if other person is perceived much less than you.
Gary did not it was IBM who was coming to visit and thought was one of the tech companies.
But nevertheless the IT world needs to pay respects to the pioneer of Operating Systems.
Bill Gates is again approached by IBM.
Bill Gates is approached again by IBM since his friend Gary did not meet them. Thus making the greatest business blunder in history.
The thing was Microsoft did not have any operating System (earlier Bill Gates was not interested in making OS).
Bill did not say, sorry guys I don’t make OS and there is nothing I can do.
Just until this part there is lot to learn from Technology businessman.
End of Part 1
Tech Know Simply (TKS) will continue later on. Keep following us.

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