So this is how the story came down to me, and I think this is the version that has persisted in popular memory.

In 1980, after years of ignoring the nascent personal computer market, IBM, then the biggest technology company

in the world, decides that it wants to create its own personal computer. But because it is

so late to the market, IBM is in a rush. It decides to cobble together a computer using components from outside vendors

instead of developing everything in-house.

And among the components IBM would need for their computer is an operating system,

that basic piece of software that allows the whole machine to run.

And so, IBM turned to one of the prominent software companies of the time, Microsoft,

and asked Microsoft to provide an operating system for what would become the IBM PC.

There was only one problem.

Microsoft couldn't provide IBM with an operating system,

because at the time, Microsoft had never actually developed one.

And so Bill Gates tells IBM that it should go pay a visit to Gary Kildall,

who had developed and owned, far and

away, the most popular operating system of the time, called CPM.

And this is where the story passes into legend.

In short order, IBM rolls up to Gary Kildall's house, looking to license CPM as the operating

system for the IBM PC, but Gary Kildall isn't home. He's out joyriding in his private plane.

The IBM suits wait around for a while, but start to get impatient waiting for Gary to return.

And so instead, they try to talk with Gary's wife, Dorothy.

But Dorothy balks at IBM's entreaties,

especially after the IBM lawyers begin the discussion by pressuring her

...