[Info-vax] Dave Cutler, Prism, DEC, Microsoft, etc.

[Neil Rieck]

I just received a copy of “Showstopper! The Breakneck Race to Create
Windows NT and the Next Generation at Microsoft” and find it a
riveting description of the activities of Cutler and other DEC people
at Microsoft (I’ve only read the first four chapters)

1. Dave Cutler was the lead s/w designer of VMS but, emotionally-
socially, was a diamond in the rough.
2. Gordon Bell was Cutler’s patron at DEC who thought that Cutler was
the most productive s/w developer at DEC.
3. Cutler wanted to leave Digital in 1981, but Bell convinced him to
set up a research arm away from Maynard (which turned out to be
Seattle)
4. When Bell left DEC in 1983 after suffering a heart attack, Cutler
lost his patron
5. Nathan Myrhvold was concerned about three major things at
Microsoft: UNIX, RISC, and portability (and kept sending memos to Bill
Gates reminding him of these potential problems in Microsoft's
future)
6. Without Bell around to protect Cutler’s group in Seattle, DEC was
able to shut it down (other groups had patrons, Cutler’s group did
not)
7. Nathan Myrhvold heard about the demise of Cutler’s RISC project and
set up the meeting between Cutler and Gates
8. Gates only wanted Cutler’s s/w people but Cutler wouldn’t agree to
a deal without bringing along his hardware people.
9. Cutler wanted to bring along DEC hardware people who would help
Microsoft change the technical direction of the PC industry
10. Gates became Cutler's patron at Microsoft (it seems that Cutler
always needed a patron to compensate for his gruff personality)
11. The first version of this multi-personality (DOS, OS/2, Windows,
whatever) portable OS was called “Portasys” and ran on a custom PC
designed by Cutler’s group based upon the Intel i860 CPU. It was never
meant to be sold; only used internally to develop a portable OS.

Neil Rieck
Kitchener / Waterloo / Cambridge,
Ontario, Canada.
http://www3.sympatico.ca/n.rieck/