Nov 22, 2022
86-DOS was a disk operating system, initially named QDOS, made by Seattle Computer Products in 1979-80, in order to have more software to sell with their 8086 computer kit--at the time the only software they had to sell with it was a Microsoft BASIC compiler that Microsoft had developed for their board.
Microsoft licensed 86-DOS in December 1980 for $25K. In ‘81, they began porting it to the 8088 IBM PC. In July ‘81, a month before the PC’s release, Microsoft bought all rights to 86-DOS from SCP for $50K, renamed it MS-DOS, and licensed it to IBM.
SCP later sued, claiming Microsoft had hidden their relationship with IBM in order to purchase 86-DOS cheaply. SCP received a $1M settlement.
