IBM's operating system acquisition plan failed completely, and none of the two major software vendors that occupied the entire market succeeded, at least the long-term Tianxing system could not find the right owner, and Kiddle's CP/M made IBM people feel ignored.

But the situation was pressing, and IBM had to find other ways, and this was the only way to find the hairy boy Bill's door.

Ethrich still remembers the seemingly harmless smiling face of the liar Bill, who swears that his friend has written a unique operating system that can be used on any machine with only a small modification, and that IBM can get a big discount if it promises to make him a supplier.

Esrich made a decision he regretted by abandoning the ethereal Skywalk and the arrogant CP/M in favor of Microsoft's products.

While Microsoft's BASIC isn't the best, at least it works, and Ethrich's request couldn't be simpler, and most importantly, Bill Gate said he could write an operating system specifically for IBM if it needed it.

This is a boon to Ethrich, because fools know that they can't get an operating system from the IBM officials in time.

With IBM's supply commitment, Bill Gate was ecstatic, although he didn't even have the hair of the operating system in his hands, but the market is infinite, and the source of profit is based on information asymmetry.

So at Boca's Billgate, he telegraphed Microsoft's No. 3 Ballmer and asked him to get a ready-made operating system as soon as possible.

Ballmer is also a talent, and immediately began to search the streets, and really let him find it.

At that time, the market share of the microcomputer operating system was the first to push the long-term Tianxing system, followed by CP/M. The Tianxing system is complex, and hackers like it, but they don't fully understand the mysteries, so there is no similar product.

As for CP/M's imitation program, it is all over the street, thanks to the laissez-faire policy of the good old man Kidder, who has always only verbally threatened these pirated products, and no one has ever stopped him.

Ballmer found a Seattle retail store, and after a few sentences, he learned that the boss had written a CP/M imitation operating system QDOS (not a fast disk operating system, but a quickanddirty operating system).

The two hit it off and made a deal where Microsoft paid $40,000 for the operating system, which was a huge profit.

Four days later, Bill Gate was getting a big deal from IBM to provide software for the PC.

Once IBM decides to do something, it will do whatever it takes, and Microsoft's contract with it is enviable: IBM pays $1 million upfront, $400,000 for the royalties of the operating system, another $400,000 for the assembler of four programming languages, and the remaining $200,000 for the labor of adapting the system to a PC for a year.

As for IBM, it only wants BASIC, as long as BASIC is installed, IBM does not need to pay for the operating system. After signing this contract, both parties thought that they had made a big bargain.

After the first prototype came out, Bill Gate led a group of students to adapt the system, and a few weeks later came up with a set of programs that could run in general and were named PC-DOS.

Just a few weeks is not enough time to complete any innovation, so that the system is almost a copy of CP/M, and even the commands are plagiarized.

Naturally, this angered Kiddell, and he threatened to take Microsoft to court. It's just that Kidder never really wanted to do this, so much so that he lost a chance to turn around, naively thinking that the market was big enough to accommodate a few operating systems.

It's just that he doesn't understand, but Microsoft does, so Bill Gate tries to make PC-dos as cheap as possible after the PC is released, and it doesn't need any additional cost after it is bundled with the machine.

And the CP/M also supports PCs, but the price is there, $279. Two systems with the same interface and functions are placed in front of the user, who will spend money to pinch?

It's just that the free stuff doesn't work very well, there are many bugs, and Esrich is trying to catch bugs, so that the main task of the entire project team at the end of '81 is to improve the system so that it doesn't crash so easily.

Poor system software took a toll on hardware sales, and there was no big improvement all Christmas, and people even started laughing at IBM.

Esrich was furious, cursing at the officials for spending $1 million on such a thing, and his original intention was to use the Skywalker system.

"Mr. Manager, someone wants to see you. The secretary spoke cautiously, for fear of angering the lion.

Ethridge waved his hand irritably: "I don't see anyone, let him get out." "He's been bored with the endless work of fixing bugs, and he's on the verge of going berserk.

"He said he was selling operating systems. The secretary was terrified, but decided to give it a try.

"The operating system of shit!" Ethridge is now allergic to the word system, and gets angry when he mentions it, "I don't want to look at any system, let that guy fuck off." ”

The secretary was so frightened that he hurriedly exited the office, and as soon as he closed the door, he heard a sound of thumping from inside.

The secretary patted his chest and made a helpless expression at Dr. Yu.

Dr. Yu had no choice but to turn to IBM headquarters for help, but first he had to take a detour and find an acquaintance at Intel for help.

It's just that now the IBM headquarters is also fiercely arguing about the PC, and the senior management who originally supported the PC was scolded for being worthless, and the huge advertising investment is in huge contrast with the poor sales of just over 10,000 units.

It's just that IBM's internal hardware designers believe that the machine itself has no defects, and all the responsibility should be borne by the operating system provider, and it is because of the countless bugs in the garbage system of DOS that the machine has endless problems, and ordinary consumers in this era have no way to tell whether it is the software or the hardware that makes their machines crash.

Opel, the boss of IBM's management board, roared at the meeting: "I don't want to listen to justifications about what went wrong, I just need answers." ”

One technician stammered, "It's definitely not ours, Intel's engineers have also provided a series of data to show that their processors and chips are fine, as if, as if it's a software problem." ”

Oppel said angrily: "Since it's because of the software, then it was the bastard who bought the software at the time?"

No one spoke, because this was Opel's own contract with Beal, and he didn't say it himself.

Opel looked through the papers and found that this bastard was himself, but he was helpless, because Bill's mother and he were both directors of the National Road Federation, and the relationship was very unusual.

The network kills people, Opel lamented, but now how to close this loophole.

"Aren't there any way you guys can solve this damn problem?" Oppel looked around to see if any heroes appeared.

Instead, a technical director raised his hand, and Opel nodded his head to speak.

The director cleared his throat and said: "The crux of the problem at present is that we don't have a perfect operating system, and a PC without software is an iron block, which is why we can't compete with Apple." The first priority should be to switch software vendors and seek better support. ”

Opel muffled: "Nonsense, this problem couldn't be more obvious, where to find this better supplier in your mouth." ”

The director said unhurriedly: "The main reason why Apple is so popular is that they have a killer application software, videoform, as far as I know, this is written by a former employee of Intel Corporation, can we just find him?"

Opel said, "You found it?"

The director nodded triumphantly: "It's an honor that I got in touch with this gentleman, and to my surprise, not only did he write the videoform, but he also wrote the most popular operating system on Mac." ”

Oppel was pleasantly surprised: "In that case, then what are we waiting for, you are in charge of this matter, no matter how much it costs, you have to get the authorization." ”

～～～～～～

A few days later, Dr. Yu sat down at the IBM table with the long-rewritten system.

Because the dog leftover system is too ugly, although foreigners don't feel anything, Dr. Yu can't accept it himself, so he takes its transliteration godson as his official name.

The prelude to the negotiations was to introduce each other, and PC designer Esrich was there as a matter of course.

Esrich was annoyed that he had a lot of unfinished tasks and was called in by headquarters for this boring meeting.

Oppel looked at Dr. Yu with a smile: "Hello, Mr. Stanley (Dr. Yu's English name), time is precious, let's get straight to the point." You have a good OS product, don't you?"

Dr. Yu smiled, "As you said, it is true, and I am also honored to be able to use this system on PCs and become an IBM supplier." ”

Oppel smiled: "This is easy to do, everyone is so sincere, business is easy to do." Your software is very popular, we need a license for the PC version, you can make a price. As he spoke, he pulled out his checkbook.

Dr. Yu didn't expect things to go so smoothly, and the n methods he had discussed with him for a long time in Hong Kong were useless at all.

"$2 million. Dr. Yu weighed it and tentatively reported a number.

"Deal!" Opel scribbled a check, "$2 million, including the operating system, the C compiler, and the VideoForm license." ”

Dr. Yu said: "You may be disappointed, the operating system and compiler are fine, and videoform cannot be sold. ”

Opel said: "Why, am I out less?"

Dr. Yu: "We have sold the ownership of Videoform. ”

Opel was disappointed: "How is this possible, so you will sell everything that makes money completely?"

Dr. Yu nodded: "It's indeed sold, because we are developing a better product." ”

Oppel: "Oh, forget it, I want your new product to work on PC." ”

Dr. Yu: "That's fine, so when are we going to sign the contract?"

Oppel: "It depends on when you can deliver." Our $2 million price can remain the same, spreadsheet software will do, but the delivery time must be fast, up to two weeks, and the penalty for slowness is $10,000 a day. How about paying an extra $10,000 a day if it could be faster?"

Dr. Yu looked at Oppel strangely, "Are you sure so?"

Opel said proudly, "Why, you don't have the confidence to finish?"

Dr. Yu took out a few floppy disks from his bag and said, "Then please write another check for $70,000, because I can provide the rewritten finished product right now." ”

Oppel's face was very strange, and he smiled awkwardly: "Young man, you really know how to do business, haha." ”

Dr. Yu: "Joke, two million is two million, you guys try this system first, you just said it casually, right?"

Oppel's face couldn't hold back: "Diligent people should be rewarded, I will count, you can get these seventy thousand dollars, but only if this system can stand our test." ”

"No problem!"

Esrich never imagined that this boring meeting would turn out to be like this, and it turned into a software testing meeting, and now he had to play the leading role.

However, Ethrich was curious, because he learned that the system to be tested was actually the famous Skywalk, although the PC version was now renamed GodWalk, but he still recognized the interface of this system at a glance, which was completely different from the command format and file system of CP/M.

Esrich has an Apple second-generation at home, which is equipped with the Tianxing system, and he is very familiar with the operation of this system. And the long-rewritten system interface is completely unchanged, so Esrich has almost no obstacles to use, it is simply flowing and good.

The modified godson system ran smoothly, Esrich found almost no bugs, and wrote a few test applets on the spot without problems.

Opel asked, "How's it going, what's the problem?"

Esrich replied: "It seems perfect now, a thousand times better than that garbage dos, but now there is no program, I can't test the performance exhaustively, it may take me a while to come up with a report." ”

Opel was overjoyed: "Test as soon as possible, our guests can't wait that long." ”

Ethridge had no choice but to say, "I'll try my best." ”

Oppel turned to Dr. Yu and said, "Mr. Stanley, I think we can talk about the next step of cooperation, what do you think?"

Dr. Yu smiled and said, "I can't ask for it!"

The two laughed at each other.