RIP Paul Allen

[Tony1044]

Just read the co-founder of Microsoft had died:

https://amp.theguardian.com/technology/2018/oct/15/paul-allen-co-founder-microsoft-dies

Another one that gave a fair old chunk of his fortune away to charities.

 

[ubuysa]

You start to feel old when people you feel you've known most of your life die. He was younger than me too, by several years.

He anchored his mega-yacht Octopus outside the marina in Agios Nikolaos here on Crete a couple of times over the years (it's much too big to get in) though we never saw him of course.

Few of us will ever make as big a contribution to history as Paul Allen, I always felt it a shame that Bill Gates got all the plaudits, but I guess Paul wanted it that way....

 

[Tony1044]

You start to feel old when people you feel you've known most of your life die. He was younger than me too, by several years.

He anchored his mega-yacht Octopus outside the marina in Agios Nikolaos here on Crete a couple of times over the years (it's much too big to get in) though we never saw him of course.

Few of us will ever make as big a contribution to history as Paul Allen, I always felt it a shame that Bill Gates got all the plaudits, but I guess Paul wanted it that way....

Indeed. Although of course, he stepped away from Microsoft many, many, years ago, some of the things he took an interest in struck a cord with me - particularly his interest in protecting historical items. As a diver who has been lucky enough to dive on some of the worlds more interesting/elusive wrecks (including one of the first two Royal Navy Submarines ever put into service which is a highly protected wreck as you can imagine) I followed some of his work with interest.

I know what you mean as well...although most of them were older than me, it seems that the last few years has been a constant stream of people who have been around for all of my life (in some cases, they were "just there" - kind of like the background noise, if you will) passing and it always seems quite shocking. Especially when you step back and go "jeez...they weren't actually that much older than I am now..."

 

[ubuysa]

I was quite surprised this morning to see no other posts in this thread. Do people no longer know who Paul Allen was?

 

[Oussebon]

I'm afraid not, for my part.

 

[ubuysa]

Crickey, I am old....

Paul Allen co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates. Paul Allen was the real brains, and the driving force, behind their success. It was their operating system (PC-DOS) on the original IBM PC in 1981 that gave them their start. Microsoft developed MS-DOS out of that project and the success of the IBM PC made it 'the' OS of the 1980's.

The story of the development of PC-DOS would make a fascinating TV episode because of its twists and turns....

When IBM were creating the PC back in the late 1970's they realised they needed an operating system and a BASIC interpreter (BASIC was the language IBM chose for the PC because it was easy for people to learn and use).

IBM contacted Microsoft because they knew that they had written a BASIC interpreter for the Altair architecture. Paul Allen had been hired by the Altair creators (MITS) in the mid-1970's and Bill Gates took a leave of absence from Harvard, formed a partnership with Paul Allen which they called Micro-Soft, and created the Altair BASIC interpreter. Microsoft (they soon altered the name) re-wrote the BASIC interpreter for the IBM PC architecture (essentially x86).

At Bill Gates' suggestion IBM approached Gary Kildall (who founded Digital Research Inc) because he'd written CP/M (Control Program for Microcomputers), a massively popular and widespread control program (a fledgling operating system) that ran on a huge variety of platforms and architectures (there were lots of architectures back before the PC) to get him to license the x86 version for the IBM PC.

Gary was away on the day that IBM called, and when they insisted that his wife sign a non-disclosure agreement before they'd tell her why they were there, her lawyer advised her not to and IBM left. They went back to Microsoft to see whether they had other ideas and Bill Gates remembered a friend called Tim Paterson who had written a disk operating system for the x86 architecture called 86-DOS and bought it from him (allegedly for 75,000 Dollars). They sold the rights to 86-DOS to IBM for 50,000 Dollars but cleverly retained the copyright. IBM renamed 86-DOS as PC-DOS and Microsoft renamed it as MS-DOS.

Thanks to the success of the IBM PC, the gradual standardisation on to the x86 architecture (except for Apple at the time), and the close similarity between PC-DOS and MS-DOS (they did diverge over the years) MS-DOS became the de-facto operating system on home computers (and with Microsoft's BASIC interpreter built in).

Although IBM had effectively begun the home computer revolution everybody saw MS-DOS as the standard operating system and the name Microsoft became associated with home computing....

 

[Tony1044]

They bought it from a company called Seattle Computer Products.

Allegorically, it was a straight rip-off of CP/M, to the point where supposedly, Gary Kildall executed an undocumented CP/M command and got the valid response.

Another long-forgotten factoid is that Gary actually incorporated Digital Research as Intergalactic Digital Research.

DR-DOS was, for a long time, considered a superior product to MS-DOS (if I recall, it even included multitasking) and would lead to one of many lawsuits against Microsoft when they added code to stop Windows 3.0 (if I recall - might be a different version) if it found to be running on DR-DOS.

Everything on the first IBM PC was made from off-the-shelf components except the BIOS. That was closed-source and proprietary. When Compaq used their now infamous "clean-room" reverse engineering process (now if memory serves, they used a third party who would become Phoenix BIOS Inc..yeah..that one) to make a true clone of it, they licensed the use of MS-DOS. Others were quick to follow suit.

Paul Allen came up with the name Micro-Soft apparently.

In his later years, he was instrumental in saving many underwater pieces of archaeological importance.

And yeah...it surprised me there were so few responses, as well, ubuysa.

 

[ubuysa]

They bought it from a company called Seattle Computer Products.

Indeed, Tim Paterson worked for SCP and that's how he came to the notice of Bill Gates. Paterson built an early microcomputer based on the Intel 8086 microprocessor (incidentally that's where the name x86 architecture comes from) and he contacted Microsoft because he knew they were working on a BASIC interpreter. He told them he was working on a control program called QDOS (which was renamed 86-DOS) and that's how Bill Gates knew of its existence when IBM came calling....

I feel privileged to have lived as an adult right through the PC era. I was writing code for the Intel 8086 and the Zilog Z80 in the early 1980's too. Those really were exciting times to be a hobbyist.

History is one of my many interests and I love those tiny events (like Gary Kildall being away) that completely change the course of history.