M$ stole this guy's code

I'm seriously having a hard time conflating the snark of the submission title with the respect owed to Dr. Kildall.

This: "Gary never wanted to file suit against Microsoft because he always believed that in the end excellence in programming would win in the marketplace."

says things a lot better than "M$".

Wait.. Microsoft bought 86-DOS from Seattle Computer Products and was written by Tim Paterson. Microsoft didn't "steal" his or anyone else's code.

This is a great example of a huge problem with the patent system. MS were absolutely within their right to make a compatible system, and everyone all around the world benefited from it. Boo to Caldera (aka SCO the linux patent troll).

A good read at: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_43/b3905109_...

Gary Kildall suffered problems with alcoholism in his later years. This eventually led to his early death in 96. This was tragic. Extremely tragic. There is possibly no room for good guys in the class of future hackers-turned-billionaires.

I wonder how many times he rolled in his grave when his vindicator Caldera went on to become the SCO headed by Darl McBride.