MS-DOS Paternity Dispute Goes to Court

theodp writes "Might be more interesting as a Who's-My-Baby's-Daddy? segment on Maury, but a Court has been asked to decide the parentage of MS-DOS. Tim Paterson, whose operating system 86-DOS (aka QDOS) was sold to Microsoft in 1980, is suing author Harold Evans and Time Warner for defamation. In his book They Made America, Evans devoted a chapter to the late, great Gary Kildall, founder of Digital Research, describing Paterson's software as a 'rip-off' and 'a slapdash clone' of Kildall's CP/M."

Confused

[k96822]

I'm... I'm confused... somebody wants to admit they created MS-DOS?

MacKiDo

[fembots]

describing Paterson's software as a 'rip-off' and 'a slapdash clone' of Kildall's CP/M.

Meanwhile, Bill is organizing an army of lawyers, and suddenly "Oh wait, they aren't talking about me!".

http://www.mackido.com/History/History_DrDos.htm l

Sweet.

[Anonymous Coward]

There is nothing funnier that two geeks in a slap fight.

I'd be suing...

[Mark_MF-WN]

I'd be suing over the title of the book -- correct me if I'm wrong, but Microsoft didn't build america. In fact, I'm pretty sure America was already quite well established by 1980, seeing as how they it was a global superpower at the time.

Re:Confused

[osewa77]

I'm... I'm confused... somebody wants to admit they created MS-DOS?

This is called Masochism [wikipedia.org] :-P

Re:MacKiDo

[kryogen1x]

Meanwhile, Bill is organizing an army of lawyers...

Hey, he might organize an army of knights now.

Re:I'd be suing...

[Alien Being]

"Microsoft didn't build america"

Microsoft bilked America.

You always love your first born more

[EmbeddedJanitor]

... OK, Bill isn't the biological father, but he's still damn proud.

Re:You always love your first born more

[k96822]

I just can't figure out why he kidnapped a severely mentally handicapped child. MS-DOS is the best case for abortion I can think of. Nothing that bad should live. Certainly, it shouldn't breed!

Al, not Vidal

[starglider29a]

I thought Gore invented DOS!

Re:Confused

[shrewd]

hey, i dont know about you but back in my day i used to prefer MS-DOS (to win32 at least) it was stable, ran games and apps faster and damn it, im a fan of the grey text....

AI Solved - Thanks to Tim Patterson

[Mentifex]

Not only did Tim Patterson, creator of Q-DOS for Seattle Computer Products, make Bill Gates a man worth fifty billion dollars, even more portentously, Tim Patterson helped out in the solution to artificial intelligence [sourceforge.net]. Back then, Mentifex here was working out the eventual solution to AI on a theoretical basis, and also attending monthly meetings of the Northwest Computer Society in Seattle WA USA - where Tim Patterson of Seattle Computer Products was an important member. One day at a meeting, the chair asked for volunteers to work on the newsletter. Mentifex was panic-stricken. He wanted to do his part, but he was so-o-o busy solving AI. The silence hung heavy over the room. Then, the all-around good-guy Tim Patterson raised his hand and volunteered to work on the newsletter. As arguably a result, Microsoft would take over the desktop, and Mentifex would solve AI.

Now, about Gary Kildall of Digital Research. In 1981, Gary Kildall published an article in Byte Magazine. Consequently Mentifex wrote to Digital Research and offered them a copy of November Magazine containing first-ever publication of the Mentifex Theory of Mind [sourceforge.net]. Gary Kildall's office manager wrote back and requested that two copies be sent. They were. Nothing happened. Gary Kildall had missed out not only on MS-DOS but also on Mentifex AI.

Who cares?

[BigAlexK]

I couldn't give a toss,
who made MSDOS,
All I know,
is I broke my toe,
kicking the damn computer out the (MS) Window,
when once again,
I'd rather have used a pen,
to write down all my precious source code.
Amen.

DNA Samples

[Snommis]

I still have my original DOS floppies - I could offer them up so they can take samples for DNA analysis...

Maury: "Mr. Gates, you are NOT DOS's father!" Bill: "Oh yeah! Oh yeah! I done TOLD you it ain't my baby!"

They do have the same noses

[Anonymous Coward]

C>
A>

Re:DNA Samples

[oftheapes]

i predict it has to be either Cheif Running Water, Chef, Mephisto, the little monkey guy who follows Mephisto around, Mr. Garrison, Officer Barbrady, Ned, Mr. Brofslovski, or the 1991 Denver Broncos. but the trial will end in a cliff-hanger.

Re:Hm...

[philkerr]

I wrote MS-DOS.....

No, I Wote MS-DOS.......

No, I wrote MS-DOS, and so did my wife!

Why does this remind me of SCO?

[pg110404]

mcbride - has 'rights' to code, sues IBM

paterson - has 'rights' to code, sues evans and time warner

Maybe jerry springer can do a show on frivolous lawsuits. I'd like to see the CEOs of each of the involved parties throw chairs at each other and punch each other silly.

I wonder if they'd get any brain damage. I wonder if some of them even have enough brains to get brain damage.

Then maury could do a show on CEOs that got brain damaged during a staged tv talk show.

At any event this is all (lawsuits included) about as productive as monkeys flinging feces at each other.

Re:QDOS was as CP/M compatible as possible

[Anonymous Coward]

All kidding aside, QDOS was meant to be simple and 'quick' disk-based OS. Nobody ( OK, few people outside the p0rn industry ) wants to call their own software 'dirty'. That sounds like a story...

Really? There are people who call their software the GIMP, for gosh sakes!

Re:MacKiDo

[Anonymous Coward]

Knights that say "neet!"

It's but a little scratch. Come back and fight like a man!

Re:Multics

[Anonymous Coward]

According to some Linux is a "rip-off" and a "slapdash clone" of SCO's unix.

Great for running Viruses

[Anonymous Coward]

DOS was great for completely destroying a system with a few simple lines of code. Ahh yes, and job security through obfuscated code... those were the days

Re:QDOS was as CP/M compatible as possible

[Don Negro]

Doing it "dirty" takes more time in the end.

Rimshot!

Re:All those rivers in Egypt!

[fm6]

Dean Swift obviously never hung out at Slashdot!

Re:You always love your first born more

[shutdown -p now]

I would be proud to have MSDOS on my resume, as would most serious software architects.
MSDOS was used by millions of users, it was a true groundbreaker.

You mean, like McDonald's?

Re:Confused

[Anonymous Coward]

Ah, so that's why the older hands called it "S/M-DOS" back in the day...