THE MAN WHO COULD HAVE BEEN BILL GATES

Ham, Steve and Jay Greene (2004) the man who could have been Bill Gates’ BUSINESS WEEK, 10/25, p. 106-108.

The story begins before these dates, but the significant ones are late summer of 1980. Gary Kildall invents a DOS like software. Gates has already put together a company and promises IBM that he will deliver all the software and related to IBM by a certain date.

However, on August 21, IBM contacts Gates. He says he can not deliver the operating system, and referred the company to Dr. Kildall. Kendall and his wife agree with IBM to supply the operating system to create personal computers.
There is an oral agreement.

August 28, Gates agrees to develop the entire system with a DOS like software to IBM. He pays $50,000 to a Patterson a Seattle programmer for a DOS related operating system.

A year later, the original inventor Gary Kildall was stunned when DOS came out and found it to be almost exactly like his own invention. As there wasn’t any paper work, Kildall was out. His business faded. He died of alcohol and depression. His wife right now is dying of brain cancer. He did not die a pauper but sold his company for $120 million dollars due to other creative products that he invented.

So is Kildall the Bill Gates? Kildall was an inventor and creative genius. Gates was the better businessman.

The Kildall family is happy just to get the story out to the public and was appreciative that BUSINESS WEEK gave the updates.

All the above is subject to debate. All parties disagree on what happened. Each feels the history of those early days in the 80’s is blurry and subject to speculation. The rendition that is described above is the one from BUSINESS WEEK with the authors’ caveats.

Kildall supporters suggest that the field now dominated by Microsoft and Gates would have been more collaborative and diversified.

However, no one will know. Now, you know the rest of the story.

(My grandfather was an inventor and businessman. He created a number of printing press inventions that were successful. He probably would have made a ton of money on the starter that he invented for automobiles. He was involved in a patent fight with Ford Motor Company and lost.)