DOS Creator Sues Over Book Chapter
from the oh-please dept
In a recent book, writer Harold Evans described the creation of QDOS as a "rip off" of Gary Kildall's CP/M. Depending on who you talk to, many people would probably agree. However, Tim Paterson, the creator of QDOS is apparently so upset over this slight in describing something that happened 25 years ago that he's suing Harold Evans and the book's publisher. While it does suck to have your work pooh-poohed as being a mere copy, isn't it about time to look at this in perspective. Paterson won. Whether or not QDOS was a ripoff of CP/M or some wholly wonderful and new creation, QDOS went to Microsoft and Microsoft won the battle for operating systems. Who really cares what some book says? Why does everyone immediately reach for their lawyers when someone says something they disagree with?
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brings back hazy memories
The baby faced kid fleeced Paterson, then turned around and fleeced the suits at Entry Systems Division. Maybe this is Paterson's outlet for delayed outrage. Where's his pot of gold?
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DOS Creator Sues Over Book Chapter
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Re: DOS Creator Sues Over Book Chapter
If someone said something false about what I did 25 years ago that was stupid, but which was mostly meaningless and certainly wouldn't impact anything else I did, why would I sue? In fact, by suing, I'd only be bringing much more attention to the issue.
Do you really think that this book would stop Patterson from getting work or anything like that if he wanted to? I highly doubt it. This isn't a character assassination. This is just someone's opinion that QDOS basically took the ideas of CP/M -- something that many people think is pretty true.
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Re: DOS Creator Sues Over Book Chapter
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of course CP/M
Sounds like Evans' characterisation of DOS is largely correct ("shoddy rip-off" is probably too far) but the included (from the article) quote about Kildall having "invented the key language" or words to that effect seems way over the top too.
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