🚀 go-pugleaf

On 8 Aug 1996 21:26:45 GMT, Paul Wyborn <cs308340@student.uq.edu.au> wrote:
>grep@cris.com (George Bonser) writes:

>>Microsoft wrote a large portion of the original Mac software, helped
>>with a lot of other Apple software too. Didn't they kind of "take
>>over" CP/M toward the end too? I also think, but am not positive that
>>Microsquish also had a hand in the early Commodore software too.

>As far as I knew they wrote Mircrosoft Basic from about 1975 for a number
>of the earlier PCs.

Not really.  I watched a PBS documentary about the evolution of the personal
computer called "Revenge of the Nerds" (an honest evaluation of a lot of
computer hobbists) recently and found out:

The Macintosh system software was written by a crack team of Apple programmers
under Steve Jobs.  Microsoft did make an early commitment to write a lot of
Macintosh application software, but they did not have a hand in the OS as far as
I know.  Microsoft did _not_ take over CP/M.  They bought an operating system
called QDOS (Quick and Dirty Operating System) which was written by a guy who
had just read a book on CP/M.  QDOS and CP/M looked very similar, the only
visible difference being the standard prompt (C> vs A>).  Microsoft wrote the
BASIC interpreter that was put in the Pets and the Commodore VIC-20/64/128.  I
don't know about the Amiga.  (I never owned one).  There couldn't be earlier
PC's in 1975.  1975 was the year the first PC, the Altair, was produced.

--
John GOTTS <jgotts@engin.umich.edu> http://www-personal.engin.umich.edu/~jgotts
  Intern, Powertrain Control Systems, Scientific Research Labs, Ford Motor Co.