Xref: utzoo comp.misc:1931 comp.sys.ibm.pc:11973
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!brl-adm!umd5!uvaarpa!mcnc!codas!karthur
From: karthur@codas.att.com (Kurt_R_Arthur)
Newsgroups: comp.misc,comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: The New Chips
Message-ID: <2037@codas.att.com>
Date: 12 Feb 88 14:01:45 GMT
References: <1157@microsoft.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T, Altamonte Springs, FL
Lines: 22

In article <1157@microsoft.UUCP> mikewa@microsoft.UUCP (Mike Walma) writes:
> Xref: codas comp.misc:2054 comp.sys.m68k:721 comp.sys.mac:13548 comp.sys.ibm.pc:13213
> 
> According to Gordon Letwin, long time software guru here at Microsoft,
> Microsoft bought the rights to something called SCP-DOS written by
> Tim Paterson at SCP, in or around August 1981.  Microsoft used it
> as the basis of MS-DOS 1.0.  Gordon descibes it as a CP/M-80
> clone that ran on the 8088's.  My reference for this is Gordon's
> new book, Inside OS/2.  If people really need to know more, I suppose
> I could ask him for more info.

MS-DOS 1.0 was a d*mn good clone of CP/M, too. A friend purchased an original
IBM PC (16k!) when it first came out.  We got WordStar up and running under
DOS 1.0 by changing a _single_ byte from a CP/M version.  What may be even more
amazing is the fact we had a legal copy of WordStar!

On another note, didn't SCP sue Microsoft in 1986 or '87 concerning the rights
to DOS? As I recall, SCP needed to clarify their legal (and financial) assets
for a bankruptcy reorganization. I _think_ MS won. 

Kurt Arthur
Software Services of Florida, Inc.