"Computer Connections" - In His Own Words: Gary Kildall

In Memory of Dr. Gary A. Kildall

All of the products above would not have been possible without the valiant and brilliant work of the founder of Digital Research, the late Dr. Gary A. Kildall.  On July 11, 1994, Gary Kildall passed away following a blow to his head at the Franklin Street Bar & Grill in Monterey, California on July 8, 1994. At the time of his death, Gary was 52. He was born in 1942, a few years before the first electronic computer even existed, and his software made possible PC computing as we know it at the turn of the 20th century. He is survived by a son, Scott, and a daughter, Kristin. His former wife, Dorothy McEwen (Kildall), with whom Gary co-founded Digital Research, Inc. in 1974, passed away on January 31, 2005.

Gary created the first Operating System for the microprocessor, CP/M.  The most advanced current version of CP/M in 1999 is IMS Ltd. REAL/32.  CP/M also serves as the basis of all modern DOS versions including the outstanding Caldera DR DOS and other derivitaves including PC-DOS from IBM, and MS-DOS from Microsoft, whose position in the computer industry is based on its unauthorized 1981 "cloning"of Dr. Gary Kildall's Digital Research CP/M, which gave birth to the IBM PC standard upon which Microsoft MS-DOS, Windows CE, Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows 00 (now 2000, formerly NT) are based today.

On July 23, 1996, Caldera Inc. acquired the entire assets of Digital Research Inc. from Novell Inc. and on July 24, 1996 filed an Antitrust Lawsuit against Microsoft Corporation.  The Final Version of this suit was ultimately settled in Caldera's favor in January 2000 prior to going to trial in Utah. Hopefully, some justice will finally be achieved.  Gary never wanted to file suit against Microsoft because he always believed that in the end excellence in programming would win in the marketplace.  We continue Gary's belief, and now must come a public awareness of the truth and a desire for justice must awaken to make the vision of an open and exciting software industry where many companies can flourish equally a reality.

All of us who knew and loved Gary are dedicated to continuing his work, his dreams, and his collegial sharing and caring about people, while working to open new frontiers in software research and development for the benefit of all.  Gary forever changed computing by laying the foundation for popular PC operating systems, but most importantly, Gary was the greatest teacher any of us who knew him and his work could ever have had.