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MS-DOS Paternity Dispute Goes to Court
theodp writes "Might be more interesting as a Who's-My-Baby's-Daddy? segment on Maury, but a Court has been asked to decide the parentage of MS-DOS. Tim Paterson, whose operating system 86-DOS (aka QDOS) was sold to Microsoft in 1980, is suing author Harold Evans and Time Warner for defamation. In his book They Made America, Evans devoted a chapter to the late, great Gary Kildall, founder of Digital Research, describing Paterson's software as a 'rip-off' and 'a slapdash clone' of Kildall's CP/M."
You shouldn't let peoples' attempts at levity bother you so much. You'll live longer, "punkass".
disabuse him of this notion
Pardon my ignorance, but what the F does "disabuse" mean (here)? I never understood this new-fangled coinage. I understand "abuse" -- which too nowadays gets thrown around very carelessly, in all kinds of odd contexts -- but how do you "disabuse"? You undo the abusing? Make up for it somehow? And in particular how do you "disabuse somebody" -- what manner of psycho-physical action takes place, what kind and extent of transition happens there?
Would somebody please think of King's English!
(I'm joking, but my abysmally poor sense of humor is perhaps apparent.)