Be more like Gary & less like Bill

I missed out on the CP/M hey-day, however, just recently, thanks to the RC2014 Z80 device and my re-ignited usage of the Amstrad CPC, I have learnt to use CP/M and respect just how genius it is/was.

My first personal computer was an Amstrad CPC 464, that just booted up into Locomotive BASIC, which was fine for the 4-5years of usage, at school I used a BBC B that ran BBC BASIC, I learnt early on about porting from one BASIC to another and how it was more about getting the design/architecture right and then applying whatever syntax was needed to make it happen.  I then acquired an Atari ST 512 (funny enough from a friend called Gary) and I was amazed at using the GEM TOS user environment... I then upgraded to a PC-clone, it was a 286 PC that came with DR.DOS 6, on 2 3.5" disks.  I actually still have those 2 disks.  My first introduction to PCs was using DR.DOS, it did annoy me that when I went to college I had to use MS-DOS 5 that just didn't have the same things that I had at home.  Then, through pressure of industry, Windows 3.11 became a thing, then Windows 95/98 and well....

I knew I had those 3.5" floppy discs some place:

As someone who had "issues" with Intellectual Property Rights and being more of an innovation person than a greedy money driven person, I can appreciate the life & times of Gary Kildall.

Back in 2001, I once interviewed for an entire day at Microsoft in TVP... an entire day... I made a decision around 14:30-ish that they were not for me, so when I was in one of the final meetings with a HR lady, I made the decision to "throw the interview".  I made a statement about wanting to work at M$oft as a stepping stone, so that I could buy a Ferrari & live the life of Riley... She looked at me in a puzzled manner as, apparently I was about to be offered a very lucrative position in their Enterprise Consulting team - I then made some other outlandish demands that I knew would cease any chance of an offer, something about "being the best" and "only working for the best".  As I drove the many hours back home, I pondered the decision I had made, whether I just made the biggest mistake of my life or not...after sleeping really well, I concluded that I made the right decision.  Microsoft was not right for me.  I believed at the time it was the "place to be".  I look at them now with pity, they are a husk, a shell of what they were; but they have and will always be the (ab)users, not the innovators or creators, not that I've cared to use any Windows OS since 2000, but last I heard they were going to run linux with a MS UI on the front?.... never a truly original idea, just always driven by marketing and dominance of position & power fuelled by money.  When the cash cow runs dry, they'll shrivel up an go away.

As I say, I can relate to Gary Kildall in that I'm more interested in furthering other people's creative passions and intellectual curiosity over and above money, greed or positions of power.

Be more like Gary.

Highly encourage you to watch all 3 episodes:

...and you've got to love good old IBM in that equation too, less said about them the better.

and yes, of course I had MS-DOS v6.22 as well, in fact I still have it running on several "old" laptops: