Next up in my Silicon Valley history column after Tramiel is Compaq and Rod Canion.
I get to tell the story about how Compaq got so good at cloning MS DOS for the PC that Bill Gates secretly agreed to licence MS DOS off THEM.
Every MS DOS install on a PC Clone after 1983 was actually Compaq DOS.
I get to tell the story about how Compaq got so good at cloning MS DOS for the PC that Bill Gates secretly agreed to licence MS DOS off THEM.
Every MS DOS install on a PC Clone after 1983 was actually Compaq DOS.
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Sorry, trying to get the hang of this multiple post thingy.. Go to next post! 👇
The blunt truth is the originator of the story of Gary turning them away is... Bill Gates.
So you can read into that how impartial a story it is.
Admittedly I'm probably one of only about 200 people in the world who've read it.
You should always read CEO autobiographies. It's always the quiet ones...
It was why Compaq didn't give a shit about rivals who claimed that they could be 'more compatible'. They couldn't. Compaq controlled their OS. They just didn't know it.
When Canion's software engineers worked it out, he confronted Gates who fessed up and licensed the last PRE-FORK version to Compaq to keep them quiet.
One short meeting in Houston later, and Microsoft are Compaq customer.
Unsurprisingly, Gates doesn't really talk about it.
Estridge (IBM) and Canion (Compaq) are the reason the modern PC, as a shared platform, exists. Two absolute giants who did it because it was right AND good business
IBM would release it. Compaq's devs would rapidly clone the hardware. Rework Compaq DOS. Then sell that BACK to Microsoft, who would file the serial numbers off and resell it to the other clones as MS DOS.