On Sun, 12 Dec 2004 05:12:46 -0500, enorbet wrote:

>   Actually I do wonder why IBM didn't pursue a stronger legal stance 
>regarding the "conversion" of MS OS/2 v 3 NT into MS Windows NT. IIRC 
>MS stated they'd hired a person from DEC ( was it? ) and adapted code 
>from his work there which was ludicrous since he'd signed a 
>non-disclosure agreement.

There might be no NDA, and definitely there was no code. The NT project
at its beginnings within DEC was known to be underfunded and could
hardly evolve beyond abstract ideas inside the brain of David Cutler.

And then Microsoft helped to convert ideas into diagrams, and diagrams
into programming specs that were to materialize in megabytes of real,
copyrighted, non-disclosure code. They had the design book completed by
late 1989/early 1990, and coded NT with only minor borrowings from OS/2
(my favorite example is AT.EXE - don't believe when you hear the entire
PM code was reused). At the same time, the more mature design specs for
Cruiser (OS/2 v 2.0) underwent last-minute amendments to make provisions
for its future convergence into NT - which never happened.

Microsoft claimed (in their Aug'99 publication) that their original
"OS/2 NT" design paper is not confidential any longer and was handed
over to a certain museum/foundation in the USA.




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