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A comment on CP/M Creator Gary Kildall's Memoirs Released as Free Download. Parent comment

Re:CP/M Creator Gary Kildall's Memoirs Released as Free Down... by agumonkey on Friday July 18, 2025 @08:32AM (#44603983)
Kinda saddens me that society usually aligns with marketing and business mindset (impressing, selling, profiting) instead of people like Kildall. There are many passionated, driven, creative, prolific people with intrisic motivations that are wasted due to commercial forces.
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Re:CP/M Creator Gary Kildall's Memoirs Released as Free Down... by WalterBright on Friday July 18, 2025 @11:48AM (#44606101)
I remember the early IBM PC days. PC-DOS was $40. CPM/86 was $240. Both were available, people simply picked the cheaper one. I used both, and there was nothing better about CPM/86.

Due to inflation, this is like $113 vs $679 today. It was a no-brainer to buy MS-DOS instead. Kildall clearly was a businessman wanting to make money off of it.

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Re:CP/M Creator Gary Kildall's Memoirs Released as Free Down... by whobre on Friday July 18, 2025 @12:48PM (#44606917)
It was IBM who set the price. According to Kildall’s right-hand Tom Rolander, they were shocked when they saw the price difference.
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Re:CP/M Creator Gary Kildall's Memoirs Released as Free Down... by WalterBright on Friday July 18, 2025 @02:32PM (#44608227)
> It was IBM who set the price

Not what I heard at the time - IBM accommodated what Kildall wanted. Kildall could have sold it separately at a competitive price.

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Re:CP/M Creator Gary Kildall's Memoirs Released as Free Down... by whobre on Friday July 18, 2025 @02:46PM (#44608363)
https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/10271725...
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Re:CP/M Creator Gary Kildall's Memoirs Released as Free Down... by WalterBright on Friday July 18, 2025 @03:46PM (#44609012)
The date on it is 2016. 33 years later. I don't find that particularly convincing.

BTW, I've read a lot of computer histories, and I often find errors in them. This is why professional historians try to use contemporary sources as much as possible.

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Re:CP/M Creator Gary Kildall's Memoirs Released as Free Down... by rbanffy on Friday July 18, 2025 @09:55AM (#44604686)
We ended up with the one this society, which usually aligns with business and marketing mindsets, deserves.

In time, we might remake society in a kinder, wiser version of itself. At that time, we might even deserve more Kildalls.

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