The History of CTRL + ALT + DELETE

[Sedalia Dave]

The History of CTRL + ALT + DELETE

 

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In 2013, Bill Gates admitted ctrl+alt+del was a mistake and blamed IBM. Here’s the story of how the key combination became famous in the first place.

 

 

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In 2001, hundreds of people packed into the San Jose Tech Museum of Innovation to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the IBM PC. In two decades, the company had moved more than 500 million PCs worldwide. After dinner, industry luminaries, including Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, sat down for a panel discussion. But the first question didn’t go to Gates; it went to David Bradley. The programmer, who has always been surprised by how popular those five minutes spent creating ctrl+alt+del made him, was quick to deflect the glory.

 

 

“I have to share the credit,” Bradley joked. “I may have invented it, but I think Bill made it famous.”

 

 

 

I would have loved to have seen the reaction on Bill gates' face when Bradley said those words.

 

 

[bgavin]

Gates got lucky.

The PC was supposed to be CP/M, but Gary Kildall got a self-righteous hair up his butt and refused to license to IBM.
Fortunately for Kildall, he died young without ever seeing how he made Gates the richest man in the world, for many years.

[Smoky Pistols]

Just goes to show--The smallest of actions on your part...….

[Lorelei Longshot, SASS #44256 Life]

Our first computer was CP/M with 8 in floppy disks that held less than the plastic 5.25 disks developed later. Had a daisy wheel printer.  Yeah, Kindall refused to deal with IBM (refused to sign a non disclosure agreement IIRC) which had actually gone to Bill Gates first, but Bill said he didn't develop software, but changed his mind when Kindall wouldn't work with IBM.