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CP/M creator Gary Kildall's memoirs released as free download

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244 points rbanffy | 7 comments | 18 Jul 25 10:22 UTC | HN request time: 2.252s | source | bottom
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POSSIBLE_FACT ◴[18 Jul 25 11:46 UTC] No.44603645[source]▶
Absolutely loved when I randomly caught an episode of Computer Chronicles back in the old time days.
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rbanffy ◴[18 Jul 25 12:04 UTC] No.44603765[source]▶
I think that, by now, I have watched every episode. He was the Bill Gates we needed.
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whobre ◴[18 Jul 25 12:14 UTC] No.44603845[source]▶
He was nothing like BG. Gary was an inventor, educator and most of all a visionary. He hated running a business, even though he started DRI after failing to convince Intel to buy CP/M.

Yes, there are quite a few videos on YouTube about him, named “The man who should have been Bill Gates” but that’s just click baiting. Watch the special episode of “The Computer Chronicles” about Gary Kildall and see what his friends and business associates say about him.

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1. agumonkey ◴[18 Jul 25 12:32 UTC] No.44603983[source]▶
Kinda saddens me that society usually aligns with marketing and business mindset (impressing, selling, profiting) instead of people like Kildall. There are many passionated, driven, creative, prolific people with intrisic motivations that are wasted due to commercial forces.
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2. rbanffy ◴[18 Jul 25 13:55 UTC] No.44604686[source]▶
We ended up with the one this society, which usually aligns with business and marketing mindsets, deserves.

In time, we might remake society in a kinder, wiser version of itself. At that time, we might even deserve more Kildalls.

3. WalterBright ◴[18 Jul 25 15:48 UTC] No.44606101[source]▶
I remember the early IBM PC days. PC-DOS was $40. CPM/86 was $240. Both were available, people simply picked the cheaper one. I used both, and there was nothing better about CPM/86.

Due to inflation, this is like $113 vs $679 today. It was a no-brainer to buy MS-DOS instead. Kildall clearly was a businessman wanting to make money off of it.

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4. whobre ◴[18 Jul 25 16:48 UTC] No.44606917[source]▶
It was IBM who set the price. According to Kildall’s right-hand Tom Rolander, they were shocked when they saw the price difference.
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5. WalterBright ◴[18 Jul 25 18:32 UTC] No.44608227{3}[source]▶
> It was IBM who set the price

Not what I heard at the time - IBM accommodated what Kildall wanted. Kildall could have sold it separately at a competitive price.

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6. whobre ◴[18 Jul 25 18:46 UTC] No.44608363{4}[source]▶
https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/10271725...
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7. WalterBright ◴[18 Jul 25 19:46 UTC] No.44609012{5}[source]▶
The date on it is 2016. 33 years later. I don't find that particularly convincing.

BTW, I've read a lot of computer histories, and I often find errors in them. This is why professional historians try to use contemporary sources as much as possible.