Christie's Likens Microsoft's Work On MS-DOS To Einstein's Work In Physics

Longtime Slashdot reader theodp writes: 'If Einstein paved the way for a new era in physics,' explains auction house Christie's in a promotion piece for its upcoming offering of 150+ 'objects of scientific and historical importance' from the Paul G. Allen Collection (including items from the shuttered Living Computers Museum), 'Mr. Allen and his collaborators ushered in a new era of computing. Starting with MS-DOS in 1981, Microsoft then went on to revolutionize personal computing with the launch of Windows in 1985.'

Christie's auction and characterization of MS-DOS as an Allen and Microsoft innovation comes 30 years after the death of Gary Kildall, whose unpublished memoir, the Seattle Times reported in Kildall's July 1994 obituary, called DOS 'plain and simple theft' of Kildall's CP/M OS. PC Magazine's The Rise of DOS: How Microsoft Got the IBM PC OS Contract notes that Paul Allen himself traced the genesis of MS-DOS back to a phone call Allen made to Seattle Computer Products owner Rod Brock in which Microsoft licensed Tim Paterson's CP/M-inspired QDOS (Quick and Dirty Operating System) for $10,000 plus a royalty of $15,000 for every company that licensed the software. A shrewd buy-low-sell-high business deal, yes, but hardly an Einstein-caliber breakthrough idea.

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