"I will be following this very, very, closely..."
Posted on 03/04/2005 6:40:48 PM PST by HAL9000
Suit may revise chapter on tech history: Origins of MS-DOS
Software's creator disputes book's description of it being a 'rip-off'
A decades-old quarrel over a defining event in computer history -- the creation of the program that propelled Microsoft to dominance -- has suddenly become a legal dispute that could lead to a public trial.
Tim Paterson, the programmer widely credited for the software that became Microsoft's landmark operating system, MS-DOS, filed a defamation suit this week against prominent historian and author Harold Evans and the publishers of his book, "They Made America," released last year.
At issue is a chapter in the book that calls Paterson's program "a slapdash clone" and "rip-off" of CP/M, an operating system developed in the 1970s by Seattle native Gary Kildall, founder of Digital Research Inc. Paterson's suit disputes that claim and a long list of related assertions in the 16-page chapter on Kildall, who died in 1994 at age 52.
The intent of the chapter, Evans said yesterday, was to "correct history" and set the record straight on Kildall's role as a software pioneer. Evans based key elements of the chapter on Kildall's unpublished memoirs.
Evans said he stands by the facts as portrayed in the book and plans to "enter a vigorous defense" against Paterson's lawsuit.
But Paterson, now 48 and retired in Redmond, said the chapter misrepresents history. One possible resolution, he said yesterday, could include the release of a new edition of the book correcting the alleged misrepresentations outlined in his suit.
"It's really a matter of the truth coming out and being widely understood, and if it takes a trial to do that, then maybe a trial can help, but it's not necessary," Paterson said. "We're trying to get their attention, first of all, and then see where that leads in terms of rectifying the problem."
In a statement, Microsoft criticized the version of events as portrayed in "They Made America" as "one-sided and inaccurate."
Microsoft's statement acknowledged the "important" work of Kildall and others at his company. However, the statement added: "The early history of the personal computer industry has been written many times, and Microsoft is proud of the foundational role we played in the industry and for delivering the combination of technical and business acumen that proved to be the catalyst for the revolution that followed."
Microsoft is not named as a party in Paterson's suit. Company representatives declined to comment yesterday when asked whether Microsoft is considering joining Paterson as a plaintiff in the suit. Paterson and his lawyer, Michael Tomkins of Seattle, said they haven't discussed that possibility with the company.
The lawsuit promises to draw attention not only because of the subject matter but also because of the prominence of the players.
Evans, married to Washington Post columnist and former Vanity Fair and New Yorker editor Tina Brown, has worked as editor of the Sunday Times of London, president and publisher of Random House, and editorial director and vice chairman of U.S. News & World Report, among other high-profile positions. The broader "They Made America" book formed the basis for a PBS television series.
Reached by phone yesterday, Evans declined to comment in detail on the lawsuit or on the methods he used to research the book, but he questioned why Paterson waited until five months after the book's publication to file the complaint.
Paterson said he first became aware of the book not long before its October publication, when contacted by a BusinessWeek reporter seeking comment for a story the magazine published about the book's chapter on Kildall. Paterson said neither Evans nor his collaborators contacted him or interviewed him for the chapter, relying instead on some of his previously published writing.
The lawsuit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Seattle, names as defendants Evans, collaborators Gail Buckland and David Lefer, and publishers Little, Brown & Co. and Time Warner Book Group. The collaborators and representatives of the publishing companies couldn't be reached for comment yesterday.
The suit acknowledges that Paterson sought to make the application programming interfaces in his QDOS operating system, the predecessor of MS-DOS, compatible with Kildall's CP/M. Application programming interfaces link programs to operating systems, and by ensuring compatibility, Paterson was seeking to "make it easy as possible for software developers to write applications" for his operating system, the suit said.
However, the suit disputes the book's assertion that Paterson's program was a rip-off of Kildall's software. It also dismisses any notion that Kildall was the actual originator of the DOS Microsoft ended up using.
"It is known in the computer world and the public in general that DOS was invented by Plaintiff Tim Paterson," the lawsuit says.
The suit seeks unspecified monetary damages above the $75,000 threshold for federal court jurisdiction.
If the case ever comes to court, "the devil is in the details and in who can remember what details about what happened," said Paul Freiberger, co-author of "Fire in the Valley," a book about creation of the personal computer, first published in 1984.
"DOS certainly looked a lot like CP/M to the user," Freiberger said yesterday. "That gets into all kinds of conflicts about look and feel and when someone is infringing."
As described in the suit, Paterson developed what would become known as DOS in the late 1970s and early '80s while working as a programmer for Tukwila-based Seattle Computer Products. Microsoft bought the operating system in the early 1980s. Paterson later went to work for Microsoft.
"They Made America," which retails for $40, tells the story of inventors such as Henry Ford, Wilbur and Orville Wright, and Walt Disney, among others. The chapter on Kildall describes him as "utterly brilliant" at programming.
Describing the development of CP/M, Evans wrote that "Kildall created the bedrock and subsoil out of which the PC software industry would grow."
"Entirely out of his own head, without the backing of a research lab or anyone, he wrote the first language for a microcomputer operating system ... before there was even a microcomputer," Evans wrote.
Among other things, the chapter dismisses as myth the legendary story in which Kildall is said to have missed a chance to sell his operating system to IBM because he decided to go flying. What's not in dispute is that Microsoft and a young Bill Gates were able to strike a deal instead, providing the operating system for IBM's early PC and launching a pivotal era for what has since become the world's largest software company.
He could sue Bill Gates for the title of "King of Low Quality Crap" - but it would be a difficult verdict because they both deserve it.
It made your Atari seem to run as fast as an XT.
Their applications software was not all that good and no one seemed to be interested in upgrading it, so whatever Release 1.1 might have been, that's all you could get.
I've always wondered if Microsoft ever dug into that particular OS.
Actually, Microsoft deserves a fair amount of credit for DOS 2.0, which set in place much of the API that's used today. Although DOS 2.0 maintained compatibility with most of the API from DOS 1.0, it added a new API which was much more versatile and which is used by almost any software written after DOS 2.0 became established.
Janet Reno sez: move on.org and get on with your life.
"Ask Bill (Gates) why the string in function 9 (in DOS) is terminated by a dollar sign. Ask him, because he can't answer. Only I know that." --Gary KildallI wonder if Paterson could answer.
A woman whose resume service I used in 1990 was still using a CP/M database & word processing setup. Sheesh.
At the time QDOS was written, CP/M was a popular OS and it would have been understandable to try to provide an API that was similar to aid in porting software.
It should be noted though that although the API was similar, QDOS/MS-DOS was not compatible with CP/M. CP/M ran only on 8080 and Z-80 processors and QDOS was written for the 8088/8086, used in IBM's PC (later on, CP/M-86 was released but was rarely used).
Now, if Patterson used the CP/M source code and translated it to 8086 code, that would be a rip-off.
I worked in a Pittsburgh law firm in 1991 that still did daily work on a multi-user Wang.
[write your own punchline, I'm sleepy]
I clerked at an office that still used 8" floppies.
< /target-rich environment >
And plenty of people drive ten year old cars because they are paid for and still do the job,they keep food in 8 year old refrigerators and watch 12 year-old tv sets.
If it does what you need ,why get rid of it ?
But I still think Microsoft has always been best at "acquiring" code from outside sources and manipulating the market.
Exactly. My first computer ran CP/M. MS-DOS was a competitive operating system.
It's doubtful whether MS-DOS would have won the battle against CP/M, which was well established, if IBM hadn't chosen to back it, apparently in the mistaken belief that Bill Gates would be easier to control.
Harold Evans is not exactly a tech expert. He's Tina Brown's husband. His expertise is publishing and fashionable trends.
Yep! Thats why I'm typing this on a 1969 Underwood electric typewriter. I have never liked the cheap feel of computer keyboards and looking at a computer "tv" screen. So years ago I wired up my old Underwood to an I/O board I made myself, hooked in a surplus 600 baud modem, and got on to the internet using the Delphi service, long before there were pictures and the "web."
I have upgraded the modem to a 56K though, and now I have to feed the paper in quickly as the Underwood autotypes the pages on freerepublic (no graphics of course). Yes, I may be a bit archaic, but it works for me. And I get to read it on paper, not some darn TV screen!
I could almost picture someone actually doing that - but Delphi is long gone - isn't it?
In spite of some superficial similarities to its ancestor CP/M-80, MS-DOS version 1.0 contained a number of improvements over CP/M including:
In 1979 my dad got a "My Wang works wonders" button at a trade show.
Didn't CP/M 86 eventually get rebranded as DR-DOS?
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