The tragic lost story of the man who could have been Bill Gates
Apple had just released the personal computer, the board at IBM had finally come to their senses after seeing the success of the Apple personal computer
In reply they quickly commissioned a team to use available and all necessary resources available at IBM to fast track the making of an IBM personal computer
After the computer was completed, they needed an operating system
A meeting with Bill Gates of Microsoft was scheduled, this was because Bill had positioned himself in the tech community as the goto guy for software solutions, not necessarily because he was the most talented, but mainly because he wasn’t keeping quiet about the little he had achieved
Bill Gates told the team from IBM sincerely he did not own an operating system, he then directed them to meet Gary Kildall, the man who developed the CP/M (using cars, a CP/M would be the reason cars don’t use different kind of fuels, a CP/M makes it possible for any kind of Operating system to be installed on a computer)
Bill placed a call to Gary to inform him some very important people were coming to see him, that he should treat them right
I don’t know if Gary took it as a joke or something else, but when the team from IBM showed up he was out cruising on his private jet
The IBM team met his wife, pleaded with her to sign a non disclosure agreement so they could talk, but she refused, out of impatience, they left and went back to Bill Gates
This time, Bill Gates took the offer
He told them he didn’t have an Operating system, but he could make one
By December, Bill bought a completed OS called Q-Dos short for Quick Dirty Operating System who actually ripped the software off an original Operating System Gary had written
They would rename it MS-Dos, it would be known today as Microsoft Windows
Gary did realize the opportunity he had lost later and threatened to sue IBM for using a ripped off version of his original software
To appease him IBM offered to add his Operating System along side Ms-Dos so users can pick whichever they prefer
The only issue was, Gary’s OS was too expensive, while Ms-Dos sold for $49 Gary charged $200+ for his OS, people couldn’t understand why they had to pay so much for an identical OS with lower price so they natural went for Ms-Dos
Few years later, Gary died from a brain injury during a bar fight, after his wife left him
