CAOS
Don,
IBM needed (wanted) a 16bit OS for their new PC and they needed it FAST because
of internal deadlines to finish the thing. A 16bit OS for the Motorola wasn't
finished yet, and Digital Research's boss was flying his Cessna when the IBM
people arrived so they went on to Bill Gates where they originally only wanted
to buy a BASIC for the new machine. Bill knew of a developer just across the
lake who had ported DR's CP/M to 16bit and offered this to the IBM people. He
then made a deal with the developer and sold this as MS-DOS to IBM which was
the beginning… Source: Robert X. Cringeley's 'Accidental Empires' – get it!
CHeers,
// Christian "ELP" Busse
\X/ near Frankfurt, Germany