86 Was Microsoft's first OS stolen?
Wednesday 1st August, 2007
The link the article is broken, but there are other sites which still discuss this story.
Rob. April 2015.
In a book on American innovation, author Sir Harold Evans wrote that DOS inventor Tim Paterson relied heavily on an existing OS called CP/M (Control Program/Monitor) created by a programmer who has since died. Microsoft in 1980 struck a licensing deal with Paterson's company -- Seattle Computer Products -- to obtain access to DOS and resell it to IBM.
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In his book "They Made America", Evans writes that Paterson, in developing DOS, took "a ride on" CP/M, which was created by the late Gary Kildall. Evans also wrote that Paterson's DOS operating system appropriated the "look and feel" of CP/M, copied its user interface, and "ripped-off" CP/M.
This is not the first time that people have claimed that Microsoft used stolen software or ideas in their products. But rotten to the root? Interesting.