

Groundbreaking Operating System Is Named an IEEE Milestone - bane
http://theinstitute.ieee.org/technology-focus/technology-history/groundbreaking-operating-system-is-named-an-ieee-milestone

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weland
It's rather unfortunate that this comes so late. Gary Kildall received far
less recognition than he was due during his lifetime, and a story -- by all
appearances, unfounded -- regarding his sloppy handling of the IBM deal was
pushed, mainly for PR reasons, by a lot of tech "journalists" along with the
likes of Bill Gates himself. Perhaps even more ironically -- considering
IEEE's distinction now -- is that his own alma mater treated him rather
unceremoniously, famously inviting him to attend their CS program anniversary
in 1992, but asking Gates, a dropout from a rival university, to deliver the
keynote speech. He apparently lapsed into alcoholism later in his life, which
ended with a motorcycle accident.

I certainly applaud IEEE's initiative, but I cannot shake off that feeling of
"too little, too late".

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seanmcdirmid
> Perhaps even more ironically -- considering IEEE's distinction now -- is
> that his own alma mater treated him rather unceremoniously, famously
> inviting him to attend their CS program anniversary in 1992, but asking
> Gates, a dropout from a rival university, to deliver the keynote speech.

Why is that ironic? Gates was already a celebrity in the Seattle area by 1992.

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weland
So was Kildall. It's ironic because U. Washington ignored its own alumni and
failed to recognize his contribution;. things typically go the other way
'round -- universities encourage their students and highlight their alumnis'
successes. The appearance given by this event -- that Kildall's work is
acclaimed and recognized -- is largely contrary to the reality: IBM and MS
went through significant efforts to relegate the importance of CP/M in their
own designs, U. Washington gave him a backseat despite being one of the people
who contributed most to the computer industry after graduating from their CS
department, and the tremendous importance of his activity was largely ignored
during his lifetime and afterwards.

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seanmcdirmid
As a UW CSE alum, it doesn't seem weird to me at all. Universities tend to
gravitate toward rich famous people so they can get money for things like
buildings. UW CSE is especially pragmatic.

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pjmorris
I had a Sanyo CP/M machine in the early 80's. I couldn't believe how fast
Turbo Pascal ran compared with the Pascal compiler on the DEC VAX 11/780's we
had at school.

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pjmlp
Probably still faster than Go. :)

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brandonmenc
I loved watching Kildall co-host Computer Chronicles. It's a shame he died so
young.

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omnibrain
I recently discovered Computer Chronicles on archive.org and driven by
nostalgia watched a few episodes and can only second this.

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smoyer
My first real experience on a computer with an operating system (that didn't
just boot basic) was using CP/M on Z80-based computers. The CPU portion of the
computer was huge by today's standards, but since the predominant floppy
drives were all eight inches across (and only 180KB) you needed a lot of
space.

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idibidiart
Kildall was the real deal, IMO.

