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Microsoft bought MS-DOS on July 27, 1981

Microsoft bought MS-DOS on July 27, 1981

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Exactly 36 years ago yesterday, The tech giant, Microsoft's Co-founder Bill Gates made one of the most important purchases in the storied history of Microsoft.

On 27th of July, 1981, Bill fully licensed the "QDOS" (quick and dirty operating system) from a company called Seattle Computer Systems, according to The Register. That OS would later become known as legendary MS-DOS.

It was not that long before this historical purchase that IBM came knocking at doors of Microsoft, in search of a 16bit Operating System to run on its early Computers. Microsoft apparently thought it was wiser to buy an existing solution than to build one from the scratch. In the beginning, it started non-exclusively licensing what was then called QDOS or 86-DOS, from a company called Seattle Computer Systems.

Shortly thereafter, on July 27, Bill dropped another 50,000$ for the exclusive rights of the OS.

According to Gizmodo, Microsoft in about a month's time started shipping the software on an IBM PC. Later, MS-DOS became a legendary early Operating System. It started a cozy relationship between Microsoft and IBM that would span decades and shape the world of tech. Bill Gates (and Microsoft's Cofounder Paul Allen and lots of other early Microsofters) got very rich.