From: J Ahlstrom Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Kildall and DRI and IBM Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2001 16:56:50 -0700 Organization: Cisco Systems Inc. Message-ID: <3AE612C2.61E57C6B@cisco.com> X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.76 [en]C-CCK-MCD (Windows NT 5.0; U) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cache-Post-Path: sj-nntpcache-5!unknown@dhcp-171-68-135-147.cisco.com X-Cache: nntpcache 2.4.0b2 (see http://www.nntpcache.org/) X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com Lines: 71 Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news.maxwell.syr.edu!sn-xit-03!sn-post-02!sn-post-01!supernews.com!corp.supernews.com!not-for-mail Xref: chonsp.franklin.ch alt.folklore.computers:79295 Stan Mazor asked me to post this: I was at Gary Kildall's funeral, but was not a close friend. The story I was told but for which I don't have 1st hand info: 1. Kildall was flying his plane to Oakland, delivering software to a customer, while Dorothy and their attorney gave IBM a tour and signed the non-disclosure agreements. 2. Gary returned in the AFTERNOON and MET with IBM and they came to an understanding that IBM WOULD BUY CPM from DRI. This FACT not widely understood. 3. That nite (by serendipity) Gary and his kids were on a plane to 'Florida' to visit DisneyWorld and 'happened' to meet on same plane the IBM'ers returning to Florida...and IBM'ers 're-affirmed' their agreement to buy CPM. 4. IBM decided not to use CPM when they acquired 'another OS' DOS perhaps itself a bootlegged copy of CPM. 5. Much later when Gary determined IBM was not going forward in using his CPM he said he would 'sue' IBM and get an injunction against their using 'bootlegged' software. Accordingly IBM and DRI entered into an agreement whereby: a. IBM would pay DRI a fixed 'penalty' fee. b. IBM would offer CPM along side of DOS, and customer could choose. 6. When the PC was shipped it was shipped with DOS, or user could send in money and get CPM---this killed CPM of course. 7. Gary formed 2 companies subsequently and was probably worth more than $10M, but he was harassed wherever he went: "weren't you out flying when IBM..." 8. He became alcoholic. He was injured in a bar. He suffered internal bleeding. He went to the 'hospital' and they sent him home. He died of a hemorrage. My conclusion: you can lean to live with your 'mistakes' but what if no one else let's you forget them. What a tragedy. He was brilliant. thx. stan Stanley Mazor, Director Customer Services Numerical Technologies Inc. 70 West Plumeria Drive San Jose, Ca., USA, 95134-2134 408-273-4485 fax: 408-919-1920 email: smazor@numeritech.com Safe Harbor: this message is not -- Helping to spend our way out of the recession.