Message-ID: <3A01B929.71ACC2DA@2net.co.uk>
Date: Thu, 02 Nov 2000 18:57:45 +0000
From: Chris Simmonds <chris AT 2net DOT co DOT uk>
Organization: 2net
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To: opendos AT delorie DOT com
Subject: Re: A little history
References: <39FC9639 DOT A6EFAE6B AT 2net DOT co DOT uk> <000301c044d9$d0000c70$ba881004 AT dbcooper>
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Reply-To: opendos AT delorie DOT com

Hi Patrick,

Thanks for the detail. Great.

I think that Kildall was dead before DRI was bought by Novell. I don't think he
could ever have been a second Bill Gates though - he just wasn't like that. He
had a life - though short. I don't think Gates has ever had a life.

Patrick Moran wrote:

> It most likely was in the developement of DOS v2 that the UNIX connection
> was implemented. I do somewhat like to distort it a little and say
> UNIX->CP/M->DOS=>Linux, just to show we are making a complete circle and
> back to where it all started from. It is only slightly exaggerated, but not
> too far from the truth. It is more like a U-turn than a circle, but it just
> looks better as a circle<grin>.
>

I take issue here. There is no connection between CP/M and Unix. MS-DOS post
v2.0 has a sort of Unixy file system and sort of does redirection and piping
which were obviously inspired by Unix (Xenix?), but its very superficial. I'm
sure there never was any common code between MS-DOS and Xenix. For one thing,
one is written in assembler, the other in 'C'. So your circle is more of a line:

CP/M -> DOS -> Windows

I see Unix as a totaly separate line.

Chris.