On (18 Jun 96) SAM EWALT wrote to CHRIS SALLEK...
Hi Sam...
 SE> And on an historical note didn't Mr. Bill buy DOS from
 SE> Digital after he had started negotiations with IBM to
 SE> provide them with the operating system for the PC?
Well actually IBM came to Microsoft believing that Microsoft had 
both, an OS and programming languages. But MS told IBM that 
Microsoft didn't have an OS they could license to them. So Mr. Bill 
sent IBM to Gary Kildall (Digital Research) and MS told Gary to 
treat these IBM people very good because they are very important. 
But Gary had other plans (some claims he was going fishing) and when 
IBM got there, they were given the run around.
Of course, IBM people didn't like waiting. And while IBM was waiting 
for someone important from DR to sign an agreement saying that they 
were never there and we (IBM) owned just about everything that is 
yours for chicken feed (which Bill Gates eagerly signed, hoping that 
somehow this would be the brake he needed to make him rich). Of 
course, DR lawyer was totally against the idea and advised Mrs. 
Kildall to not sign it. So IBM got fed up and left and later they 
talked to Microsoft and MS stated don't worry (as they were afraid 
to lose their language software deal with IBM for their new PC), and 
Microsoft told IBM they could get another OS for their PC.
So Microsoft contacted Seattle Computer Products who had a 
programmer named Tim Patterson who had bought a CP/M manual for 
about $5, studied it and then wrote QDOS in about 4 months time. And 
which QDOS had much of the CP/M look and feel to it. Microsoft 
thought it would be better if they owned the rights to QDOS, so they 
bought it from Seattle Computer Products for a mere $50,000. Which 
later turned out to be the deal of the century.
And now to somehow tie this into GEOS. PARC (Xerox's Palo Alto 
Research Center) was the one's who created the GUI in the beginning 
(1971-72 era). Although Xerox's upper management didn't understand 
the importance of the GUI (personal computers were just starting to 
pop up) and they freely gave away their ideas to others. They even 
demoed the GUI to Steve Jobs and later to Apple's engineering staff. 
Ah... the GUI (Lisa and MAC) look and feel idea was born. Then came 
Amiga, GEOS, Windows, and OS/2.
Btw, one guy told me that Brian Dougherty (President of Berkeley 
Softworks now known as GeoWorks) was one of those who actually 
worked at PARC. But my source for this is very unreliable, so I 
wouldn't say it's true without some sort of verification.
--- PPoint 2.00
---------------