Microsoft's Ancient History w/ Unix

NutscrapeSucks writes "The Register is running a article which discusses Microsoft's experience running their own version of UNIX, called Xenix, as their standard desktop operating system. Before they got involved with OS/2 and later NT, Microsoft considered UNIX to be the PC operating system of the future. Talks about Bill Gates running vi, difficulties with AT&T, and other interesting tidbits." There's a lot of stuff everyone knows, and a lot of stuff you probably didn't know. Worth a read.

Comments

UNIX!

[qslack]

Ha-ha. Microsoft had a product named "UNIX." That's such a stupid name, obviously no one there ever said it out loud.

M$ sucks!

</sarcasm> :)

So true, so true

[Arker]

According to 'Hackers', Bill's BASIC program for the MITS Altair was big, slow, bloated, late, didn't work well, and (here's the kicker) required an expensive 4k memory expansion board from MITS that basically didn't work.

Never used Altair basic, so I won't diss it, but since the versions that MS has produced since then (GW Basic, Qbasic, VBasic) are pretty incredibly shoddy compared to implementations that predated DOS I am guessing the criticism is probably fair.

Everytime someone claims Bill Gates is a "geek" let alone implying he's some sort of superlative geek, I must say I take that as a personal attack on all true geeks. In a sense it's true. I mean, well, look at him - obviously that was his social assignment in high school, yes. But he's about the worst example of a geek ever. He's simply never shown competence at anything except management and marketing.

Re:This isn't surprising.

[zulux]

People on this site seem to forget that Gates is a serious geek - he's not some MBA who got lucky.

No. He's a spoiled brat, born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Do you think he would have gotten the traff-o-data gig, if it wasen't for his mommy pulling strings, or started Microsoft without Daddys seed money.

Daddy Gates is a true rags to riches stroy - Baby Bill just stood on his shoulders.