Like the founder of the computer company Oric said, "those who are on the cutting edge, tend to get impaled". But it's a really sad story, and strange how pivitol certain moments in people lives are. If he had cancelled that birthday trip, or just agreed to buy out like Microsoft. The computer world could have been very different.
Microsofts problem is, that they are that cutting edge that they fall off the edge and their products fall into oblivion. Like their iPad thing they had in 2002 and some kind of smartwatch which they had years ago as well. But I think the whole "one-call-decides-everything" dilema is more common then one would think.
I used to love seeing Gary on The Computer Chronicles. Very intelligent man. It was guys like him that built the foundation of computing. Real shame how things turned out for him.
Kildall's downward spiral is like some alternate-universe Back to the Future type story where the worst possible thing could happen to someone extremely important in another universe because someone time traveled and messed things up.
And the Loss of Kildall let Bill Gates gain wealth and power, dabble in genetics and vaccines, reportedly leading to health problems for some of the citizens experimented on in foreign nations... :-(
@@Caseytify Nah, it was the worst possible ending for computing.. I still think Windows 95 would have happened but the back end probably would have been cp/m.
@@clases_idioma_arabe So named by Jack Tramiel in the 50s because there were already a bunch of companies named General something-or-other, and Admiral was already a radio manufacturer.
Is it just me or would a movie about this guy pretty much write itself? I mean, you've got genius, underdog seeing massive success, getting shafted by the big bad man, failure, loss of hope, divorce, desperation, alcoholism and a gruesome, premature death - the biopic practically writes itself!
Hi LGR, I knew about Gary Kildall for years and it's really great that you have opened this series with his genius. Watched him in Computer Chronicles. He had great knowledge and sense for computer technology. And besides his expertise, he was really a nice and decent human being. See how he always treats with respect every guest which has visited CC. But we all know from real life that mostly the good guys finish last. This was especially true for Gary. Rest in peace, Gary...
"Gary, we really like what you are doing over here with the computers, but...are you working towards space travel?" "No. Just computers." "How about we drop the 'Intergalactic' from the company name."
I haven't commented on a youtube video in a very long time, but I would like to express my appreciation for you making these. Before finding you, I never really thought about the origins of current technology. But because of your videos, I have taken an interest in older tech and the progression of gaming and computers into what they are today. I hope to see more of these in the future and thank you!
I've been rewatching old Computer Chronical episodes recently. Such a shame about Gary Kildall. The guy was really clever and he struck me as a nice guy on the show. He deserved better for sure.
Lazy Game Reviews Got linked to an episode of tech tales on your channel after watching a documentary about silicon valley.next thing i know i've watched all of them. You missed your calling as a Ken Burns narrator (and probably a nice little grant money pay raise). Love these things. and the oddware reviews are just as great. keep up the good content.
These tech tales are top notch, honestly leagues ahead of any similar stuff I've seen on cable TV and whatnot. I'm addicted to them, can't wait to go through them all. Brilliant channel.
He actually thought the PC would just be another computer that wouldn't sell very well. He wasn't super worried about it. Also this video didn't make it very clear but the man died super rich.
Yup, as I said in the video DRI and Kildall weren't unsuccessful by any means. Still, it could've been a far grander thing, and the dude could've been in the mainstream conscious like Gates instead of just another guy who fell by the wayside.
Yes, he did not had to worry about money. I think what killed him is that no one realized the contributions he made to operating systems. MS-DOS wasn't innovative, they only copied the most popular features of CP/M after each version of CP/M rolled out.
Gary did not think "microcomputers "wouldn't sell well". He was in charge of development. But he left Dorothy in charge of us in Marketing and she was in no way a good manager or thinker. She would not listen to the people she hired and, instead, relied on the lawyer to do a lot of her thinking. Gary and Dorothy both knew they were on the leading edge. Dorothy just didn't know how to manage strategies and ideas and Gary couldn't interfere because he was in the "dog house" and had no influence with dorothy.
Exactly. Bill Gates / Microsoft founder was the worst kind of person. Anti trust, intimidation of his dealers, liar, thief. The Gates foundation was NOT started by Bill. He's A SKUNK!
+S. Chambers Though you are probably right, its a dumb reason for a divorce, it takes a big man to put family before business and i find that nobel. though birthdays are not a one time thing and can be celebrated whenever....
Even if this part of the story was actually true, what is 'filthy rich' if you already have your own plane to fly :) I'm sure everyone would be bittered by this, but still he had more money he could ever spend at that time. Still a shame though he passed on that meeting. This showed that Kildall wasn't the real tough businessman Bill Gates was (or turned out to be for a long time). Business changed quickly in those times. While at DRI there was still more of a 'leasure' atmosphere, a bit like Atari had before Warner killed them with their suits, Bill Gates was more of a drill instructor at the time and left no time for fun, you had to work work work. In the end that paid off bigtime. Maybe that was wat it took at that moment. I sure like Kildall much better as we knew him from his appearanced than I like Bill Gates of that time. Not bashing Gates here, he had sort of an 'evil' mind in the 90's but to see what he now gives back to the world with all his billions is tremendous.
The divorce happened because he sadly became and alcoholic. Stewart Cheifet mentions this in interviews. Also mentions that he did appear bitter about it, but then no one can really know what Gary was feeling. IBM screwed over Gary with the "Let the user decide which is best" deal. IBM agreed but sold both MS Dos and CP/M with their systems. Pricing CP/M at $100 and MS Dos at $50 so naturally all the users picked the cheapest option. Stewart also said, and this isn't a failing, that one of the reasons he believes Gary never became as big as Microsoft and the like, was because he was too nice. That he was the nicest IT guy he knew in the industry.
Excellent! I started with CP/M 1.4 on a Northstar Horizon c 1978. I admired the modularity of CP/M. Apparently Gary was a tech guy, not a business guy. He loved flying and solving problems in software, not making financial statements look good. You've done a great job on this video. Thanks.
This is my favorite series of yours so far- nice to learn something about an era slightly before mine, was always intrigued about the genesis of home computing and operating systems. good work
I hate to be a spam merchant but The Register is really good for this sort of thing as well as general techy news. They have text articles like this tagged as Unsung Heroes of Tech.
They mention it occasionally on CC. In the episode about used PCs, one of the guests mentions that no one wants the "vanilla CP/M machines" anymore (ruclips.net/video/_WsFrVld5_8/видео.htmlm21s). Sorry, Gary.
I didn't know what CP/M was until I joined the company in 1981. When I came to the realization they were completely against every marketing rule in the book I bailed in 1982 and came to Japan to create the Japanese version of dBase II/III.
Great review, but I think its important to note DRI and Kildall personally didn't really take IBM seriously until they were successful with PCs. They felt IBM needed DRI more than DRI needed them. They didn't really believe the IBM PC was going to be very successful. It's is also important to note CP/M wasn't some vastly technologically superior option to a very comparable MS-DOS. They each had ups and downs. CP/M introduced multi-user run levels which was amazing and now the basis of all OSes, but was a giant memory hog compared to MS-DOS in a era where each bit counted. MSDOS's FAT disk system was a major plus for a PC with hard disks thereby future-proofing it, most apps received almost equal compatibility, and dirt cheap in comparison. But it's funny, CP/M was the first choice and things could be radically different if things were different. That's the fun thing about the industry, change is always present. A giant could be toppled any-day, or a small start up could change the world.
Most of the changes came with ver 2.x of MS-DOS. Ver 1.x was pretty much a straight copy of CP/M. Later versions of CP/M, later DR-DOS, showed parallel improvement. Just about all the updates to DOS 2.x came from UNIX concepts.
Wow, so here we have a youtube game reviewer who, while competent for sure, was just one of a million or so trying to cover that 'niche'. But today he uploads a well-made, well-reserached educational video that'd just need to be a bit lengthier and have some background music and it could be a PBS special. I mean it when I say this is a good move and a smart idea to set yourself out from the crowd, and in a sea of opinion-based content out there especially when it comes to people who call themselves "reviewers", it's refreshing to see some fact-based mini-documentary like this. Plus, I learned some things!
+hip indeed He's already pretty unique as it is. Granted I haven't looked for other people talking about unknown computer accessories or random DOS games, but I haven't come across any such people either.
This channel really is one of the best hidden gems (not so much anymore!) on RUclips. Such consistent videos all with excellent production and overall quallity. Keep up the great work LGR! You're my favorite subscription!
Fascinating stuff. I began following this channel for all of the old school DOS game reviews, and I've stuck with it for, well, the excellent old school DOS game reviews - love that you always feature overviews of full boxed copies - as well as all of the historically enlightened coverage of aspects of the computer industry I knew nothing about. Keep up the good work.
This was VERY interesting! I played with CP/M-86 a little bit several years ago, and I did quite a bit of playing around with GEM, as well. Speaking of which, do you think there might be grounds for a video about GEM in the future? Perhaps draw from both the PC and Atari ports, as well as the FreeGEM and OpenGEM projects, and how Apple sued DRI and such?
Longtime fan, but first time commenting. That was an excellent brief overview of Gary Kildall's story. I recently got nostalgic for Jones Computer Network / ME/U programming I used to watch in the '90s on C-Band satellite and began raiding Archive.org for episodes of Stewart Cheifet's The Computer Chronicles. The first episode I watched was the Gary Kildall tribute episode, as it was ranked highest in downloads. I also caught up with what Leo Laporte's been up to over at TWiT.tv, pulled in by his interview with Cheifet on Triangulation #114, wherein Stewart rhapsodizes about Gary just as he had in 1995 on CC. As an OpenGEM user on a dedicated MS-DOS machine, and a formerly casual Computer Chronicles fan, I knew about Digital Research, Inc., CP/M, GEM, and Gary Kildall, but only in a very fractured and anecdotal way, never putting them all together until now. It wasn't even a case of having forgotten his story, but of never having heard it at all. And what an epic, legendary story it is! The only other man I can think of as important AND overlooked in the history of personal computing is Dennis Ritchie, but perhaps that's best left for a future installment of Tech Tales? Anyway, thanks for making an episode that felt like it was made just for me! May synchronicity favor the studious.
All your segments rock...great stuff to listen to while working or driving...and then I watch them again when I get down time...look forward to more content...thanks.
Yes please keep this up! I live for these Tech Tales! I accidentally clicked on one of your videos a month or so ago while trying to catch my phone after dropping it trying to listen to RUclips and take the trash out at the same time. Instant sub! Your videos are EXCELLENT! Can't wait for more!
Wow... Imagine if CP/M became PC-DOS. Then we could have a highly evolved form of GEM now instead of Windows, Halo could have been a PC exclusive (Maybe even Mac exclusive) shooter (with Destiny becoming a Halo MMO) as there wouldn't have been an XBOX and Rare would still be a second-party dev for Nintendo. Heck, maybe we would even have gotten several sequels to Banjo-Tooie, Donkey Kong 64 and Conker's Bad Fur Day for Nintendo consoles by now! And we would now have an LGR Tech Tales episode about the now obscure company Microsoft that was mostly known for their widely used version of BASIC.
Be Weary when thinking about changing the past, it works in weird ways and if a single thing was out of place everything would be different. Maybe some of your favorite games wouldn't exist without everything falling into place. hell, a lot of good things have happened because people were against Microsoft.
Iivaitte I remember going back to the past and accidentally framing some carpenter guy for high treason. When I came back to the modern day, most of history developed some weird cult around him.
Dude, rewatching this video I realized you were the first person whose videos I constantly watched - a pioneer at competent, well made and enjoyable content on RUclips! The IEEE recognized Kildall's work with a Milestone recognition in 2014.
¡DUDE! HOW DID I MISS THIS WHEN YOU FIRST POSTED IT!?!?!? This immediately reminded me of watching "Triumph of the Nerds" on PBS when I was a young'un. I hope you do more of these - this was fantastic and as someone who was born and raised in Silicon Valley (San Jose to be precise), I remember this shyte. My dad was a tech writer at a mainframe company in Sunnyvale and we used to drive past the old Fujitsu and Adobe and Capcom HQs to get him from work and shit when I was a kid. Even though I'm more of a Japanesey-console gamer than a PC-gamer, this is still my heritage and history and I friggin' LOVE it. I hope you do more. I'm gonna subscribe to you on Patreon ASAP (I've been meaning to already for awhile, just been in a rough financial situation) so you can if/when you do have the desire to do more episodes like this. BTW: did you ever play the Homeworld or KKND RTS series? Or the Sierra historical city-sims like Pharoah and Emperor? Just curious - besides Alpha Centauri/Alien Crossfire/Civ, those were my favorite PC games after we got a computer and I still love them to this day. But anyway, enough fanboy gushing - hope to see more computer-history videos like this from you in this future. Keep making fucking awesome vids!!!!
Excellent as always. The production quality of this video is actually amazing. I remember your videos in the pre-beard days when you were just some guy who made videos of old games for fun. Incidentally your accent still confuses me. You seem to speak a flawless variety of the mythical General American. I didn't know anyone born after 1940 actually spoke General American. Keep up the amazing work.
So much could have been different for the smallest change in events. We're all on a crazy rollercoaster of contingency with no rails. This series is brilliant and this was a very affecting story. Thanks!
That's the sort of stuff that turns your marriage into a divorce, and tanks your life until you get beaten to death in a biker bar brawl. Shit just happens sometimes. Better to move on than to stay focused on past mistakes.
As a programmer, Tech Tales series is one of my favorite series of videos. There's plenty of information that needs to be preserved and told, and LGR is doing an amazing job.
Great stuff LGR. I think I've seen you post comments on pc history videos like "Triumph of the Nerds" so I guess this stuff is right up your alley. I personally would like to see more of this series.
In 1981, CP/M had only about 1/4 of the OS market. The other almost equal sharers were Commodore, Apple and Tandy with their prorietary OSs. The language should be, CP/M was the vast leader in the "independent" operating system business. IBM, as a result of the antitrust injunction against them in the early 1970's, was not allowed to bundle software with their hardware. They started cooperating with Microsoft but left them to decide pricing for the OS. Later IBM and DRI signed an agreement and therefore were put on pretty much an equal footing as Microsoft. But DRI stuck with their pricing for CP/M 86 at $250 which was set before the IBM PC came out later in 1981. Standard CP/M 86 as well as CP/M 86 for the IBM Displaywriter were priced at $250. Microsoft priced PC-DOS at $60. So, do the math. Which do you think consumers would buy? When Lotus 1-2-3 came out under PC-DOS it spelled the end of the chance for DRI to gain significant market share. There is more to the story but let's just end it here.
It's amazing to think how one man putting family before his profession changed history in a major way. Thanks for this, Clint. Great research and captivatingly displayed.
I have discovered the computer chronicles in yt as of a few weeks ago where I saw this guy for the first time. Quite an interesting story! I was born in 1980 and love all the 70-90 computer stuff. Thanks!
I find these so interesting and I love how you have a lot of knowledge on business backgrounds as well as the products themselves. Hope you keep this series up as I look forward to the next one :)
Amazing how effective RUclips video suggestions are not stupid are they ha! Story about Mcafee from years ago randomly pops up because of recent news. After watching thinking I really enjoyed that just glued me to watch LGR Tech Tales 👌🏼 well done ☺️
Always enjoy computer history tales. I'd like to make a correction though, PC-DOS was not the "default" OS on the IBM-PC, that was a built-in BASIC. PC-DOS was sold for $40 and CP/M for $240. Most opted for PC-DOS and so that became the de-facto standard.
@@oliviernoir6669 It has worked fine for Apple decades later, even though their "higher quality" is arguable. Gary was just way ahead of the times on that aspect too.
This is an amazing series. There was a similar series in Russian called "16 бит тому назад" ("16 bits ago") by Dmitri Bachilo on the GamesBusters channel. It was dedicated to the history of personal computers (including consoles) from gaming prospective. It lasted for two seasons if I am not wrong with a weekly video release schedule (resulting in ~40 episodes per season) and eventually ran out of things to cover :)
Love your new series " Tech Tales" its just the sort of content I look for. I've been following you for a couple years now and your channel keeps getting better. Gotta say though getting killed in a biker bar fight is not at all where I saw that story heading. Keep up the good work!
LGR, just so that you know - I really like this format. This has a campfire-style storytelling / war stories feel to it, which is really quite nice to listen to.
Wow great hearing this full story. He is great to watch in The Computer Chronicles. All the episodes are on youtube. He seemed like a down to earth nice guy. No wonder he had problems with drinking with all that drama. RIP Gary Kildall
These Tech Tales are really awesome.It shows me an era when i wasn't born and i did learn some thinks about pc while watching you're videos.The trifting videos are good but not my style but the retro stuff totally awesome.Ceep up the good work and happy haloween.
Loving this series, it's great to finding out about some amazing people who could easily be forgotten. Crazy to think what Mr Kildall could of become and how it probably would of effected everyone watching this video!
I thought I recognized this guy from somewhere! I discovered the archives of the Computer Chronicles a couple of years ago. It's pretty cool seeing what people actually thought of this stuff back in the day.
Great Episode. I jumped ship from MS-Dos 6.x over to DR-Dos 6.x and then Novell Dos 7. I was living in Novell's backyard when they released Novell Dos 7. I loved being a rebel at the time and enjoyed some of the extra features that DR6 and N7 had that MS didn't offer.
Thank you for creating these videos. I find them entertaining and informative. I even clicked an ad to send a little ad revenue your way. Keep'em coming!
Great series - so many interesting stories. I would be interested to know the full Atari story as they disappeared and reappeared and seem to be a game publisher but not really sure what happened - interesting people defecting to/from competitors. Tech companies definitely have stories to tell!
Complicated one, but essentially Jack Tramiel got ill and put his kids in charge of the company. They didn't have the same ruthless business personality of their father and so the company floundered and eventually folded very quietly.
Wow, as always, LGR has more accurate info than Wikipedia, and best graphicals to illustrate the story. Anyway, all I wanted to say here is that Gar Kildall is probably the only famous computer person who was open, sharing, and did not manipulate people. I can't say that about pretty much any other "celebrated" people who "changed" the world.
Love this series, your Oddware one was my favourite but this new Tech Tales is great. If you feel like it could you please do one on the 80s and 90s Home Computers from Commodore and Atari?
Fantastic vid! I'm really loving this new series!! I didn't know any of this which quite surprised me as I thought I knew the basics of the IBM / MS story. Very well researched and put together. Btw long time fan, I look forward ever vid you put out.
I know that this has been said before, but somebody should give you a production team and put you on TV, Netflix, or something! This series is always so good!
Wrong lesson. Have life besides your company. On day or the other a company will smash to the ground. Microsoft now missed the smart phone era and apple and google are taking over a fair share of the market. It will take time - personal computers aren´t death and I will be using Windows + a specif software for the next 10 years, but still: I am now typing on a netbook using ubuntu and I will next read an ebook on an iPad - but microsoft will sink as well. Next to sink will be Apple and Google - both gotten so big that internal commutation starts to struggle. Again: It will take time, but eventually they will be history. On the other-side: Friends, families, hobbies and so on will remain (off course just till death, but this just shows how valuable they and the time we have are/is).
Hey Clint! Thanks so much for your effort. You are covering something that could be called a "history class for nerds". Nowadays there are lots of opportunities to get into IT, right? But the least of those will focus on the past rather than teaching the latest techniques, programming languages and hardware specs. But it is also very important to cover, where it all came from and how it developed. This is, what you teach us, and it is so great that you do. Simply: Thank you :)
So with this you are on the list of 3 channels on youtube that I stopped only viewing videos that sounded interesting and starting viewing all of your new videos because I knew they would be quality.
They never tell us anything about the history of computers and that´s very sad. I must thank you for doing this series, because i would never have learned anything about things like this. Very good job.
This was fantastic! First I've seen of the Tech Tales series. Great idea for some videos on interesting topics such as this. Well done, keep 'em coming.
There are an INCREDIBLE amount of "what ifs" I ask myself about technology. Everything from cancelled games/dead consoles, businesses closing to businesses not going through with deals that went big etc etc etc. Makes me wonder what an alternate universe would have been like!
I would love to see you do an episode on Tandy/Radio Shack. Their awesome PC initiatives from being the first true Personal Computer, to their final failure selling off all of their computer manufacturing, including THOR, their OS on RAM, and Deskmate programs that were eventually over-ridden even though they were way ahead of the market.
![What Happened to America Online? [LGR Tech Tales]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/A3DudqwsRPw/mqdefault.jpg)
Like the founder of the computer company Oric said, "those who are on the cutting edge, tend to get impaled".
But it's a really sad story, and strange how pivitol certain moments in people lives are. If he had cancelled that birthday trip, or just agreed to buy out like Microsoft. The computer world could have been very different.
Not that it matters- Microsoft has been mismanaging itself into irrelevance for the past 15 years anyway.
Tyro Kitsune
That's the torture of hindsight though.
we probably would have grown to hate DRI, as we hate MS :)
Tyro Kitsune
She could have gone on her own still and he had the meeting.
Microsofts problem is, that they are that cutting edge that they fall off the edge and their products fall into oblivion. Like their iPad thing they had in 2002 and some kind of smartwatch which they had years ago as well.
But I think the whole "one-call-decides-everything" dilema is more common then one would think.
I used to love seeing Gary on The Computer Chronicles. Very intelligent man. It was guys like him that built the foundation of computing. Real shame how things turned out for him.
Kildall's downward spiral is like some alternate-universe Back to the Future type story where the worst possible thing could happen to someone extremely important in another universe because someone time traveled and messed things up.
The 64th Shadow man that's heavy
I don't know about "worst possible"...
And the Loss of Kildall let Bill Gates gain wealth and power, dabble in genetics and vaccines, reportedly leading to health problems for some of the citizens experimented on in foreign nations... :-(
@@Caseytify Nah, it was the worst possible ending for computing.. I still think Windows 95 would have happened but the back end probably would have been cp/m.
Goddamn, dude, that ending was grim.
@ebulating Okay that daid he didn't get to see his company make it.
But this guy lost eveything all because IBM got impatience because he.
Tragedy level: Greek
🤣 🤣 🤣
North Star, Osborne, Traf-O-Data, Intergalactic Digital Research, I always love the names of ole tech companies.
Traf-O-Data is kind of lame:)
Commodore 💜
@@clases_idioma_arabe So named by Jack Tramiel in the 50s because there were already a bunch of companies named General something-or-other, and Admiral was already a radio manufacturer.
Is it just me or would a movie about this guy pretty much write itself? I mean, you've got genius, underdog seeing massive success, getting shafted by the big bad man, failure, loss of hope, divorce, desperation, alcoholism and a gruesome, premature death - the biopic practically writes itself!
Agreed like crazy, I'd love to see that.
NGL I'd pay to watch that
They made a movie about this in 2001, the movie is called Antitrust 2001
@@mrkitty777 Oh,thank you! I´ll look for it :D @LGR @Redhotsmasher @EdwardAnimations
Yes, please.
Hi LGR, I knew about Gary Kildall for years and it's really great that you have opened this series with his genius. Watched him in Computer Chronicles. He had great knowledge and sense for computer technology. And besides his expertise, he was really a nice and decent human being. See how he always treats with respect every guest which has visited CC. But we all know from real life that mostly the good guys finish last. This was especially true for Gary.
Rest in peace, Gary...
"Gary, we really like what you are doing over here with the computers, but...are you working towards space travel?"
"No. Just computers."
"How about we drop the 'Intergalactic' from the company name."
Thank you for remembering Gary. Every serious computer user should where modern OS's got their roots.
I haven't commented on a youtube video in a very long time, but I would like to express my appreciation for you making these. Before finding you, I never really thought about the origins of current technology. But because of your videos, I have taken an interest in older tech and the progression of gaming and computers into what they are today. I hope to see more of these in the future and thank you!
Thanks for the comment, glad to hear you appreciate these :)
You're welcome! :D
I've been rewatching old Computer Chronical episodes recently. Such a shame about Gary Kildall. The guy was really clever and he struck me as a nice guy on the show. He deserved better for sure.
Lazy Game Reviews Got linked to an episode of tech tales on your channel after watching a documentary about silicon valley.next thing i know i've watched all of them. You missed your calling as a Ken Burns narrator (and probably a nice little grant money pay raise). Love these things. and the oddware reviews are just as great. keep up the good content.
Game Zoo Thanks a lot!
These tech tales are top notch, honestly leagues ahead of any similar stuff I've seen on cable TV and whatnot. I'm addicted to them, can't wait to go through them all. Brilliant channel.
Thank you! Got another one coming your way in about a week, stay tuned :)
Shit these are way better than the view counts would suggest. Please keep it up. It's very high quality shit.
Thank you, more is to come!
Lazy Game Reviews Where is it?! We need more...please...
He actually thought the PC would just be another computer that wouldn't sell very well. He wasn't super worried about it. Also this video didn't make it very clear but the man died super rich.
Yup, as I said in the video DRI and Kildall weren't unsuccessful by any means. Still, it could've been a far grander thing, and the dude could've been in the mainstream conscious like Gates instead of just another guy who fell by the wayside.
Yes, he did not had to worry about money.
I think what killed him is that no one realized the contributions he made to operating systems. MS-DOS wasn't innovative, they only copied the most popular features of CP/M after each version of CP/M rolled out.
Gary did not think "microcomputers "wouldn't sell well". He was in charge of development. But he left Dorothy in charge of us in Marketing and she was in no way a good manager or thinker. She would not listen to the people she hired and, instead, relied on the lawyer to do a lot of her thinking. Gary and Dorothy both knew they were on the leading edge. Dorothy just didn't know how to manage strategies and ideas and Gary couldn't interfere because he was in the "dog house" and had no influence with dorothy.
@@jomunoz They were copying DR DOS features in MS DOS 5 and 6.
Exactly. Bill Gates / Microsoft founder was the worst kind of person. Anti trust, intimidation of his dealers, liar, thief. The Gates foundation was NOT started by Bill. He's A SKUNK!
"Hey honey I'm gonna pass up the chance to make us filthy rich to spend time with you on your birthday."
*Gary I want a divorce*.
Tough break man.
Don't you think they got the divorce because he secretly blamed her for that missed opportunity?
+S. Chambers Though you are probably right, its a dumb reason for a divorce, it takes a big man to put family before business and i find that nobel. though birthdays are not a one time thing and can be celebrated whenever....
+s0nnyburnett That's simply further proof that you just can't please some people... (or if you're so inclined, "just" women :P )
Even if this part of the story was actually true, what is 'filthy rich' if you already have your own plane to fly :) I'm sure everyone would be bittered by this, but still he had more money he could ever spend at that time.
Still a shame though he passed on that meeting. This showed that Kildall wasn't the real tough businessman Bill Gates was (or turned out to be for a long time). Business changed quickly in those times. While at DRI there was still more of a 'leasure' atmosphere, a bit like Atari had before Warner killed them with their suits, Bill Gates was more of a drill instructor at the time and left no time for fun, you had to work work work. In the end that paid off bigtime. Maybe that was wat it took at that moment. I sure like Kildall much better as we knew him from his appearanced than I like Bill Gates of that time. Not bashing Gates here, he had sort of an 'evil' mind in the 90's but to see what he now gives back to the world with all his billions is tremendous.
The divorce happened because he sadly became and alcoholic. Stewart Cheifet mentions this in interviews. Also mentions that he did appear bitter about it, but then no one can really know what Gary was feeling. IBM screwed over Gary with the "Let the user decide which is best" deal. IBM agreed but sold both MS Dos and CP/M with their systems. Pricing CP/M at $100 and MS Dos at $50 so naturally all the users picked the cheapest option.
Stewart also said, and this isn't a failing, that one of the reasons he believes Gary never became as big as Microsoft and the like, was because he was too nice. That he was the nicest IT guy he knew in the industry.
Excellent! I started with CP/M 1.4 on a Northstar Horizon c 1978. I admired the modularity of CP/M.
Apparently Gary was a tech guy, not a business guy. He loved flying and solving problems in software, not making financial statements look good.
You've done a great job on this video. Thanks.
This is my favorite series of yours so far- nice to learn something about an era slightly before mine, was always intrigued about the genesis of home computing and operating systems. good work
Thanks, glad you're enjoying!
I hate to be a spam merchant but The Register is really good for this sort of thing as well as general techy news.
They have text articles like this tagged as Unsung Heroes of Tech.
he is my favorite person on computer chronicles, i never knew he had such a big impact on computers, didnt know he created CP/M.
I didn't know he died in a biker fight...
They mention it occasionally on CC. In the episode about used PCs, one of the guests mentions that no one wants the "vanilla CP/M machines" anymore (ruclips.net/video/_WsFrVld5_8/видео.htmlm21s). Sorry, Gary.
I didn't know what CP/M was until I joined the company in 1981. When I came to the realization they were completely against every marketing rule in the book I bailed in 1982 and came to Japan to create the Japanese version of dBase II/III.
^ I love how this series puts human faces on the names/titles that I only used to find on my dad's old floppy cabinet.
Hey man I think you really have something here, if you keep this brand recognition and continue with these episode, I can see this going big.
Seeing as how this video has almost 1/2 of the views on the first one, I think hes doing fine on the growing portion.
Lmao
That actually aged well, and I like it did
Great review, but I think its important to note DRI and Kildall personally didn't really take IBM seriously until they were successful with PCs. They felt IBM needed DRI more than DRI needed them. They didn't really believe the IBM PC was going to be very successful.
It's is also important to note CP/M wasn't some vastly technologically superior option to a very comparable MS-DOS. They each had ups and downs. CP/M introduced multi-user run levels which was amazing and now the basis of all OSes, but was a giant memory hog compared to MS-DOS in a era where each bit counted. MSDOS's FAT disk system was a major plus for a PC with hard disks thereby future-proofing it, most apps received almost equal compatibility, and dirt cheap in comparison.
But it's funny, CP/M was the first choice and things could be radically different if things were different. That's the fun thing about the industry, change is always present. A giant could be toppled any-day, or a small start up could change the world.
Most of the changes came with ver 2.x of MS-DOS. Ver 1.x was pretty much a straight copy of CP/M. Later versions of CP/M, later DR-DOS, showed parallel improvement. Just about all the updates to DOS 2.x came from UNIX concepts.
Wow, so here we have a youtube game reviewer who, while competent for sure, was just one of a million or so trying to cover that 'niche'. But today he uploads a well-made, well-reserached educational video that'd just need to be a bit lengthier and have some background music and it could be a PBS special. I mean it when I say this is a good move and a smart idea to set yourself out from the crowd, and in a sea of opinion-based content out there especially when it comes to people who call themselves "reviewers", it's refreshing to see some fact-based mini-documentary like this. Plus, I learned some things!
This so much. People with opinions are a dime a dozen...
Well said! I enjoy these quite a bit too.
That's what makes him kick arse!
LGR already found his niche. His videos are what got me interested in vintage computers, and he reviews more old computer games than anyone I've seen.
+hip indeed He's already pretty unique as it is. Granted I haven't looked for other people talking about unknown computer accessories or random DOS games, but I haven't come across any such people either.
This channel really is one of the best hidden gems (not so much anymore!) on RUclips. Such consistent videos all with excellent production and overall quallity. Keep up the great work LGR! You're my favorite subscription!
This is such a tragic story. I feel so sad. Thanks a lot, Clint!
Fascinating stuff. I began following this channel for all of the old school DOS game reviews, and I've stuck with it for, well, the excellent old school DOS game reviews - love that you always feature overviews of full boxed copies - as well as all of the historically enlightened coverage of aspects of the computer industry I knew nothing about. Keep up the good work.
This was VERY interesting! I played with CP/M-86 a little bit several years ago, and I did quite a bit of playing around with GEM, as well.
Speaking of which, do you think there might be grounds for a video about GEM in the future? Perhaps draw from both the PC and Atari ports, as well as the FreeGEM and OpenGEM projects, and how Apple sued DRI and such?
Longtime fan, but first time commenting. That was an excellent brief overview of Gary Kildall's story. I recently got nostalgic for Jones Computer Network / ME/U programming I used to watch in the '90s on C-Band satellite and began raiding Archive.org for episodes of Stewart Cheifet's The Computer Chronicles. The first episode I watched was the Gary Kildall tribute episode, as it was ranked highest in downloads. I also caught up with what Leo Laporte's been up to over at TWiT.tv, pulled in by his interview with Cheifet on Triangulation #114, wherein Stewart rhapsodizes about Gary just as he had in 1995 on CC.
As an OpenGEM user on a dedicated MS-DOS machine, and a formerly casual Computer Chronicles fan, I knew about Digital Research, Inc., CP/M, GEM, and Gary Kildall, but only in a very fractured and anecdotal way, never putting them all together until now. It wasn't even a case of having forgotten his story, but of never having heard it at all. And what an epic, legendary story it is! The only other man I can think of as important AND overlooked in the history of personal computing is Dennis Ritchie, but perhaps that's best left for a future installment of Tech Tales?
Anyway, thanks for making an episode that felt like it was made just for me! May synchronicity favor the studious.
All your segments rock...great stuff to listen to while working or driving...and then I watch them again when I get down time...look forward to more content...thanks.
This is like your hardware reviews of old, but even better. Best material you have so far imo, probably the best of its kind on youtube. Respect.
Yes please keep this up! I live for these Tech Tales! I accidentally clicked on one of your videos a month or so ago while trying to catch my phone after dropping it trying to listen to RUclips and take the trash out at the same time. Instant sub! Your videos are EXCELLENT! Can't wait for more!
Wow...
Imagine if CP/M became PC-DOS. Then we could have a highly evolved form of GEM now instead of Windows, Halo could have been a PC exclusive (Maybe even Mac exclusive) shooter (with Destiny becoming a Halo MMO) as there wouldn't have been an XBOX and Rare would still be a second-party dev for Nintendo.
Heck, maybe we would even have gotten several sequels to Banjo-Tooie, Donkey Kong 64 and Conker's Bad Fur Day for Nintendo consoles by now!
And we would now have an LGR Tech Tales episode about the now obscure company Microsoft that was mostly known for their widely used version of BASIC.
Be Weary when thinking about changing the past, it works in weird ways and if a single thing was out of place everything would be different. Maybe some of your favorite games wouldn't exist without everything falling into place. hell, a lot of good things have happened because people were against Microsoft.
Iivaitte I remember going back to the past and accidentally framing some carpenter guy for high treason. When I came back to the modern day, most of history developed some weird cult around him.
Damian Freeman
GREAT SCOTT!
I wouldn't say that. It's like if CP/M actually did become PC-DOS we would be thinking the same thing about Microsoft.
You really are a bright spark!
Dude, rewatching this video I realized you were the first person whose videos I constantly watched - a pioneer at competent, well made and enjoyable content on RUclips! The IEEE recognized Kildall's work with a Milestone recognition in 2014.
¡DUDE! HOW DID I MISS THIS WHEN YOU FIRST POSTED IT!?!?!? This immediately reminded me of watching "Triumph of the Nerds" on PBS when I was a young'un. I hope you do more of these - this was fantastic and as someone who was born and raised in Silicon Valley (San Jose to be precise), I remember this shyte. My dad was a tech writer at a mainframe company in Sunnyvale and we used to drive past the old Fujitsu and Adobe and Capcom HQs to get him from work and shit when I was a kid. Even though I'm more of a Japanesey-console gamer than a PC-gamer, this is still my heritage and history and I friggin' LOVE it. I hope you do more. I'm gonna subscribe to you on Patreon ASAP (I've been meaning to already for awhile, just been in a rough financial situation) so you can if/when you do have the desire to do more episodes like this. BTW: did you ever play the Homeworld or KKND RTS series? Or the Sierra historical city-sims like Pharoah and Emperor? Just curious - besides Alpha Centauri/Alien Crossfire/Civ, those were my favorite PC games after we got a computer and I still love them to this day. But anyway, enough fanboy gushing - hope to see more computer-history videos like this from you in this future. Keep making fucking awesome vids!!!!
Excellent as always. The production quality of this video is actually amazing. I remember your videos in the pre-beard days when you were just some guy who made videos of old games for fun.
Incidentally your accent still confuses me. You seem to speak a flawless variety of the mythical General American. I didn't know anyone born after 1940 actually spoke General American.
Keep up the amazing work.
Haha, I try my best, thanks
thank you for keeping history alive. so many people now days don't know the story of how PC got there start.
I just watched it again and realized the guy had ONE HELL OF AN EDUCATION.... then he died in a bar fight.
I'm just struggling with calculus....and this guy seemed to have no problem with it. Then he died in a bar fight.....just mystifying to me.
That ending almost brought a tear to my eye over how quick things went down hill for Gary. Looking forward to the next video as always.
So much could have been different for the smallest change in events. We're all on a crazy rollercoaster of contingency with no rails. This series is brilliant and this was a very affecting story. Thanks!
I bet Gary never let his wife forget her dropping the ball. "Gary you forgot to take out the trash" "ya well you let Microsoft take over the world!"
Jared Connell must have explained the divorce
He was still a multi-millionaire!
And then she sings Miley Cyrus' Wrecking Ball, "I never meant to start a war..."
That's the sort of stuff that turns your marriage into a divorce, and tanks your life until you get beaten to death in a biker bar brawl. Shit just happens sometimes. Better to move on than to stay focused on past mistakes.
This man deserved soooooooo much better. I’d have loved to have met the man.
As a programmer, Tech Tales series is one of my favorite series of videos. There's plenty of information that needs to be preserved and told, and LGR is doing an amazing job.
Great stuff LGR. I think I've seen you post comments on pc history videos like "Triumph of the Nerds" so I guess this stuff is right up your alley. I personally would like to see more of this series.
In 1981, CP/M had only about 1/4 of the OS market. The other almost equal sharers were Commodore, Apple and Tandy with their prorietary OSs. The language should be, CP/M was the vast leader in the "independent" operating system business.
IBM, as a result of the antitrust injunction against them in the early 1970's, was not allowed to bundle software with their hardware. They started cooperating with Microsoft but left them to decide pricing for the OS. Later IBM and DRI signed an agreement and therefore were put on pretty much an equal footing as Microsoft. But DRI stuck with their pricing for CP/M 86 at $250 which was set before the IBM PC came out later in 1981. Standard CP/M 86 as well as CP/M 86 for the IBM Displaywriter were priced at $250. Microsoft priced PC-DOS at $60. So, do the math. Which do you think consumers would buy? When Lotus 1-2-3 came out under PC-DOS it spelled the end of the chance for DRI to gain significant market share. There is more to the story but let's just end it here.
Please tell more ! Very insightful.
It's amazing to think how one man putting family before his profession changed history in a major way. Thanks for this, Clint. Great research and captivatingly displayed.
LGR, i've been a proud subscriber since 2009. I'm going out on a limb and say that this Tech Tales series is just so awesome !
I have discovered the computer chronicles in yt as of a few weeks ago where I saw this guy for the first time. Quite an interesting story! I was born in 1980 and love all the 70-90 computer stuff. Thanks!
I find these so interesting and I love how you have a lot of knowledge on business backgrounds as well as the products themselves. Hope you keep this series up as I look forward to the next one :)
Usually I would skip over videos like this, but you make stuff like this fun LGR!
Amazing how effective RUclips video suggestions are not stupid are they ha! Story about Mcafee from years ago randomly pops up because of recent news. After watching thinking I really enjoyed that just glued me to watch LGR Tech Tales 👌🏼 well done ☺️
Always enjoy computer history tales. I'd like to make a correction though, PC-DOS was not the "default" OS on the IBM-PC, that was a built-in BASIC. PC-DOS was sold for $40 and CP/M for $240. Most opted for PC-DOS and so that became the de-facto standard.
Yes, you're correct! I just kind of jammed that in there, should've clarified the timing of it becoming the standard.
DOS for $40 vs CP/M for $240.... hmm, Gary, which one do you figure will sell? Huge shocker, that one.
He refused to lower the price thinking people would choose the higher quality product - another lost opportunity, this is quite sad.
@@oliviernoir6669 It has worked fine for Apple decades later, even though their "higher quality" is arguable. Gary was just way ahead of the times on that aspect too.
@@CanuckGod it wasn't gary's decisoin, it was IBM's way of screwing him
This is an amazing series. There was a similar series in Russian called "16 бит тому назад" ("16 bits ago") by Dmitri Bachilo on the GamesBusters channel. It was dedicated to the history of personal computers (including consoles) from gaming prospective. It lasted for two seasons if I am not wrong with a weekly video release schedule (resulting in ~40 episodes per season) and eventually ran out of things to cover :)
Vasily Sidorov Are those english or russian language?
armorgeddon unfortunately, only in Russian
Vasily Sidorov Sad to hear that. Thanks for your reply!
That was extremely enjoyable to watch and listen too. Looking forward to more episodes of this caliber, in this new series. You rock!
Love your new series " Tech Tales" its just the sort of content I look for. I've been following you for a couple years now and your channel keeps getting better. Gotta say though getting killed in a biker bar fight is not at all where I saw that story heading. Keep up the good work!
The history of Digital Research is a sad tale for sure...
Man, these Tech Tales are gritty as hell. I dig it. This series contains history with human nature for better or for worse.
LGR, just so that you know - I really like this format. This has a campfire-style storytelling / war stories feel to it, which is really quite nice to listen to.
Thanks for your hard work and research. I hope you continue doing Tech Tales. I really enjoy them. Even this story is a sad story.
Really great stuff. A bit of computer history I didn't know about, and engagingly told. Thanks LGR!
Wow great hearing this full story. He is great to watch in The Computer Chronicles. All the episodes are on youtube. He seemed like a down to earth nice guy. No wonder he had problems with drinking with all that drama. RIP Gary Kildall
The Tech Tales are quite simply the best to watch on youtube, at the moment - as compared to other retrostuff. Good work... ;-)
I love the high level of quality in your videos and I thoroughly enjoy watching your content.
These Tech Tales are really awesome.It shows me an era when i wasn't born and i did learn some thinks about pc while watching you're videos.The trifting videos are good but not my style but the retro stuff totally awesome.Ceep up the good work and happy haloween.
You have an infectious personality LGR dude. I can't stop watching your videos your video game childhood sounds just like mine
Loving this series, it's great to finding out about some amazing people who could easily be forgotten. Crazy to think what Mr Kildall could of become and how it probably would of effected everyone watching this video!
I thought I recognized this guy from somewhere! I discovered the archives of the Computer Chronicles a couple of years ago. It's pretty cool seeing what people actually thought of this stuff back in the day.
Great Episode. I jumped ship from MS-Dos 6.x over to DR-Dos 6.x and then Novell Dos 7. I was living in Novell's backyard when they released Novell Dos 7. I loved being a rebel at the time and enjoyed some of the extra features that DR6 and N7 had that MS didn't offer.
Thank you for creating these videos. I find them entertaining and informative. I even clicked an ad to send a little ad revenue your way. Keep'em coming!
Such a relaxing way to get information from the days of rocks and stones computing power.
Wow, this video is really a step up.
And I really enjoy all the content you make.
This series is quickly becoming one of my top picks on youtube!
Great series - so many interesting stories. I would be interested to know the full Atari story as they disappeared and reappeared and seem to be a game publisher but not really sure what happened - interesting people defecting to/from competitors. Tech companies definitely have stories to tell!
delusionnnnn Thank you!
Complicated one, but essentially Jack Tramiel got ill and put his kids in charge of the company. They didn't have the same ruthless business personality of their father and so the company floundered and eventually folded very quietly.
That took a sudden turn at the end.
No, I'm not crying, what do you mean?
Wow, as always, LGR has more accurate info than Wikipedia, and best graphicals to illustrate the story. Anyway, all I wanted to say here is that Gar Kildall is probably the only famous computer person who was open, sharing, and did not manipulate people. I can't say that about pretty much any other "celebrated" people who "changed" the world.
every video you have is great please never stop doing what youre doing
These tech tales are very well written and narrated. Please keep making them, they are really interesting!
Great video! I feel like this story would make a fantastic documentary.
Love this series, your Oddware one was my favourite but this new Tech Tales is great. If you feel like it could you please do one on the 80s and 90s Home Computers from Commodore and Atari?
Fantastic vid! I'm really loving this new series!! I didn't know any of this which quite surprised me as I thought I knew the basics of the IBM / MS story. Very well researched and put together. Btw long time fan, I look forward ever vid you put out.
I know that this has been said before, but somebody should give you a production team and put you on TV, Netflix, or something! This series is always so good!
MAN That is so sad. Lesson here if you have a million dollar deal in the works don't take your wife out on her birthday.
Even better: don't get married.
PlayersMind
Or have a birthday.
I only hope for her sake that the meeting was missed by accident and not because she prioritized her birthday over a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
EbilWulf And if you really need to get married, do it on her birthday. Reduces the risk of stuff like this happening by 50%.
Wrong lesson. Have life besides your company. On day or the other a company will smash to the ground. Microsoft now missed the smart phone era and apple and google are taking over a fair share of the market. It will take time - personal computers aren´t death and I will be using Windows + a specif software for the next 10 years, but still: I am now typing on a netbook using ubuntu and I will next read an ebook on an iPad - but microsoft will sink as well. Next to sink will be Apple and Google - both gotten so big that internal commutation starts to struggle. Again: It will take time, but eventually they will be history.
On the other-side: Friends, families, hobbies and so on will remain (off course just till death, but this just shows how valuable they and the time we have are/is).
These segments are fantastic. Please, keep them coming - I love them!
microsoft's second logo (for example at 4:15) is so much cooler than the current one
Fantastic episode. Well written and well thought out. And enlightening as well.
Man I do love these "fall from grace" type stories, always found the fascinating
:D - another great episode of this series, but that's to be expected from you Clint, as always thank you for making!
Thanks so much for doing this. It's always been one of my favorite stories from tech history, albeit one of the saddest.
Hey Clint! Thanks so much for your effort.
You are covering something that could be called a "history class for nerds".
Nowadays there are lots of opportunities to get into IT, right?
But the least of those will focus on the past rather than teaching the latest techniques, programming languages and hardware specs.
But it is also very important to cover, where it all came from and how it developed. This is, what you teach us, and it is so great that you do.
Simply: Thank you :)
I love your channel man!
Zombietrader Thank you!
Great video! I can't get enough of this computer history. And it's fun to find out about the people too. Can't wait for the next one!!
So with this you are on the list of 3 channels on youtube that I stopped only viewing videos that sounded interesting and starting viewing all of your new videos because I knew they would be quality.
They never tell us anything about the history of computers and that´s very sad. I must thank you for doing this series, because i would never have learned anything about things like this. Very good job.
This was fantastic! First I've seen of the Tech Tales series. Great idea for some videos on interesting topics such as this. Well done, keep 'em coming.
There are an INCREDIBLE amount of "what ifs" I ask myself about technology. Everything from cancelled games/dead consoles, businesses closing to businesses not going through with deals that went big etc etc etc. Makes me wonder what an alternate universe would have been like!
Thank you LGR! this was truly amazing!
Wow, this was an AMAZING episode. Seriously informative, seriously interesting, and seriously unique. Keep these coming!
In this episode of LGR Tech Tales:
Life sucks!
And then you die!
Thanks for watching!
Thanks LGR for an excellent episode. Look forward to the next video.
I would love to see you do an episode on Tandy/Radio Shack. Their awesome PC initiatives from being the first true Personal Computer, to their final failure selling off all of their computer manufacturing, including THOR, their OS on RAM, and Deskmate programs that were eventually over-ridden even though they were way ahead of the market.
Wow, that was melancholic. Thanks for this, was a good video.
Wow I never even knew such a thing existed love this new series!
Edutainment at its finest....Keep up the awesome job man!
Great work! I really like these Tech tales. Normally not really a tech guy, but wauw this is great stuff man! Very professional!