Question about MS-DOS and Gary Kildall's operating system?
Question about MS-DOS and Gary Kildall's operating system?
I've seen several documentaries on software and operating system histories, yet I still can't locate the exact figures you're asking about. Generally, it's reported that IBM agreed to buy MS-DOS for around $40 and Gary Kildall's OS for $240.
My question is, how much did Kildall and Gates charge IBM for their respective operating systems?
IBM compensated Microsoft with a fixed sum of $430,000 to acquire the rights for QDOS and rebrand it as PC-DOS. This payment wasn't based on per-copy royalties, and it wasn't until the Windows era in 1988 that Microsoft started charging a fee tied to each processor for all PCs produced by an OEM, regardless of whether they included a Microsoft product. Microsoft's request was simply to offer their own MS-DOS version of the OS. Once the agreement was secured, they purchased QDOS/86-DOS from its developer for $50,000.
I'm uncertain about CP/M-86, but the initial offer fell to $60 by 1983. Delivering 16-bit technology was delayed, and IBM proposed selling it to them in return for avoiding legal action over QDOS copying the features and look of 8-bit CP/M. It's possible Kildall received the full $240 per copy, possibly due to excessive greed. Such a steep price only applied to a small fraction—just 3%—of IBM PCs shipped with CP/M-86.