Have you ever seen the great PBS documentary "Triumph of the Nerds"? Part two of the three part series deals with the evolution of DOS and the Microsoft/IBM split. It's probably not news to the participants of this mailing list, but it was neat to see all the faces of the famous years. Tim Patterson, Gary Kildall, Ed Roberts, Woz. You've probably seen those guys before, but the Eddie Currie's and Lee Felsenstein's of the era were also interviewed -- important folks who just never achieved the level of Kildall/Roberts.
If you've never seen it you can grab it from Amazon on VHS for something like $60. It's well worth it. It was released in 1995 if I recall correctly. I'd still blame Microsoft's bullying practices on Gates as much as Ballmer. Just because Ballmer swung the ax doesn't mean Gates didn't give the orders. There's a great Geos fan page at: http://www.zimmers.net/geos/index.html Jim Leonard wrote: > Chris Newman wrote: > > > > What's the story? Is MS abusing its relationship with NBC? Where'd you hear the > > rumors? > > Yes, I'm very interested in that. Gates is part snake oil salesman, part gangster, > > and all > > opportunist. > > Rumor has it that Microsoft offered to 1. ignore existing NBC Microsoft > product license violations (ie pirated copies) *and* cut them a deal on > existing and future product license purchases if they set up Gates on a > prime-time show (not necessarily Frasier) to promote XP. > > Gates was paid standard SAG rates, something like $636 for a day's > work. But this isn't surprising, really -- he doesn't need the money > ;-) > > I'm not entirely sure I'd call Gates a gangster or snake-oil salesman -- > that's Balmer's job and always has been. :-) Opportunist is 99% of > what Gates was/is. He saw some opportunities and he took advantage of > them, and a couple of his successes -- MS-DOS licensed on multiple > machines making him rich, Excel, Word for DOS -- were legitimate reasons > to like Microsoft in the 1980s. Everything past Windows 3.0 was > downhill though -- as late as 1989 they were telling application > developers to develop for Windows 3.0 behind IBM's back (they had a > license to co-develop OS/2 with IBM at the time). It was a total abuse > of power. > > My only real lament with the rise of Microsoft is two-fold: > > 1. People have come to expect buggy software, multiple releases/patches, > and frequent crashing. It has become acceptable. > 2. Geoworks Ensemble never got the recognition it deserved. > > The above is what really, really depresses me, especially Geoworks. > -- > http://www.MobyGames.com/ > The world's most comprehensive gaming database project. > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to > the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to > [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' > Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/
