Ed Roberts dead at 68
in [Commodore]
|
From: Jon on 2 Apr 2010 10:55 Micro computer pioneer Ed Roberts has died at the age of 68 in Georgia, His company, MITS has the distinction of being the first to be shafted by Bill Gates of "Micro-Soft". http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8600493.stm
From: commodorejohn on 2 Apr 2010 15:14 I know Microsoft is the popular Big Bad Corporation in the computing world, especially in the Commodore community, but why exactly do you say that MITS got "shafted" by them? Microsoft BASIC was one of the factors in the Altair's early success.
From: Bill Garber on 2 Apr 2010 16:16 "commodorejohn" <commodorejohn(a)gmail.com> wrote in message news:b3afc95c-5553-4835-ae7f-41ed2ed371fe(a)d33g2000vbu.googlegroups.com... > I know Microsoft is the popular Big Bad Corporation in the computing > world, especially in the Commodore community, but why exactly do you > say that MITS got "shafted" by them? Microsoft BASIC was one of the > factors in the Altair's early success. And, the article clearly states that MITS was sold in 1977, so how the heck could MicroSoft have had anything to do with its demise. 8^) Bill
From: BruceMcF on 2 Apr 2010 17:03 On Apr 2, 4:16 pm, "Bill Garber" <willy4...(a)garberstreet.com> wrote: > "commodorejohn" <commodorej...(a)gmail.com> wrote in message > > news:b3afc95c-5553-4835-ae7f-41ed2ed371fe(a)d33g2000vbu.googlegroups.com... > > > I know Microsoft is the popular Big Bad Corporation in the computing > > world, especially in the Commodore community, but why exactly do you > > say that MITS got "shafted" by them? Microsoft BASIC was one of the > > factors in the Altair's early success. > > And, the article clearly states that MITS was sold in 1977, so how > the heck could MicroSoft have had anything to do with its demise. 8^) Definitely. Whomever they stole the basic structure of Basic from might have reason to complain, but Altair was a beneficiary.
From: Rainer Buchty on 2 Apr 2010 19:22
In article <b3afc95c-5553-4835-ae7f-41ed2ed371fe(a)d33g2000vbu.googlegroups.com>, commodorejohn <commodorejohn(a)gmail.com> writes: |> I know Microsoft is the popular Big Bad Corporation in the computing |> world, especially in the Commodore community, but why exactly do you |> say that MITS got "shafted" by them? Microsoft BASIC was one of the |> factors in the Altair's early success. If I get the timeline right, then there was no "Micro-Soft" before the BASIC success with the Altair 8080. Rainer |