Editing Gary Kildall (section)

=== IBM dealings ===
[[IBM]] approached Digital Research in 1980, at [[Bill Gates]]' suggestion,<ref name="Isaacson_2014"/> to negotiate the purchase of a forthcoming version of CP/M called [[CP/M-86]] for the [[IBM PC]]. Gary had left initial negotiations to his wife, Dorothy, as he usually did, while he and colleague and developer of the [[MP/M]] operating system [[Tom Rolander]] used Gary's private aeroplane to deliver software to manufacturer [[Bill Godbout]].<ref name="Chronicles_1995"/><ref name="Wallace_1993"/> Before the IBM representatives would explain the purpose of their visit, they insisted that Dorothy sign a [[non-disclosure agreement]]. On the advice of DRI attorney Gerry Davis, Dorothy refused to sign the agreement without Gary's approval. Gary returned in the afternoon and tried to move the discussion with IBM forward, and accounts disagree on whether he signed the non-disclosure agreement, as well as whether he ever met with the IBM representatives.<ref name="Freiberger_2000"/>

Various reasons have been given for the two companies failing to reach an agreement. DRI, which had only a few products, might have been unwilling to sell its main product to IBM for a one-time payment rather than its usual [[Royalty payment|royalty]]-based plan.<ref name="Young_1997"/> Dorothy might have believed that the company could not deliver CP/M-86 on IBM's proposed schedule, as the company was busy developing an implementation of the [[PL/I]] programming language for [[Data General]].<ref name="Evans_2004"/> Also possible, the IBM representatives might have been annoyed that DRI had spent hours on what they considered a routine formality.<ref name="Wallace_1993"/> According to Kildall, the IBM representatives took the same flight to [[Florida]] that night that he and Dorothy took for their vacation, and they negotiated further on the flight, reaching a handshake agreement. IBM lead negotiator Jack Sams insisted that he never met Gary, and one IBM colleague has confirmed that Sams said so at the time. He accepted that someone else in his group might have been on the same flight, and noted that he flew back to Seattle to talk with [[Microsoft]] again.<ref name="Wallace_1993"/>

Sams related the story to Gates, who had already agreed to provide a [[BASIC]] interpreter and several other programs for the PC. Gates' impression of the story was that Gary capriciously "went flying", as he would later tell reporters.<ref name="Manes_1992"/> Sams left Gates with the task of finding a usable operating system, and a few weeks later he proposed using the operating system [[86-DOS]]—an independently developed operating system that implemented Kildall's CP/M [[Application programming interface|API]]—from [[Seattle Computer Products]] (SCP). [[Paul Allen]] negotiated a licensing deal with SCP. Allen had 86-DOS adapted for IBM's hardware, and IBM shipped it as [[IBM PC&nbsp;DOS]].<ref name="Freiberger_2000"/>

Kildall obtained a copy of PC&nbsp;DOS, examined it, and concluded that it infringed on CP/M. When he asked Gerry Davis what legal options were available, Davis told him that intellectual property law for software was not clear enough to sue.<ref name="Hamm_2004"/> Instead Kildall only threatened IBM with legal action, and IBM responded with a proposal to offer CP/M-86 as an option for the PC in return for a release of liability.<ref name="Morrow_2000"/> Kildall accepted, believing that IBM's new system (like its previous personal computers) would not be a significant commercial success.<ref name="Scoble_2007"/> When the IBM PC was introduced, IBM sold its operating system as an unbundled option. One of the operating system options was PC&nbsp;DOS, priced at {{currency|amount=40|code=USD|linked=no}}. PC&nbsp;DOS was seen as a practically necessary option; most software titles required it and without it the IBM PC was limited to its built-in [[Cassette BASIC]]. CP/M-86 shipped a few months later six times more expensive at {{currency|amount=240|code=USD|linked=no}}, and sold poorly against DOS and enjoyed far less software support.<ref name="Chronicles_1995"/>