The Legend of Gary

by T.M. Welsh

We've got a chip, but what can it do?
Talk to a disk and store data too
Now it's a computer, so Gary said
And he turned a whole industry on its head

IBM came to call and where were you?
They wanted to do business but Gates did too
Gary, were you flying, as some people say?
Did your wife do you in on that fateful day?

What did you tell them, we'd so like to know
How did Bill Gates steal the whole show?
When the dust settled and it was all done
CP/M became toast and DOS was the one

You were a visionary; you made great stuff
But multitasking and storage was not enough
you gave us a GUI, better than them
Windows sucked, but you gave us a GEM

What if it'd been different and been Microsoft's loss?
What if we'd got CP/M instead of MSDOS?
You walked the walk, you wrote the code
You always lost out but your pain never showed

Whatever you did, Gates did it too
You were the better, but his empire grew
You waged many wars and all battles were lost
Your opponent would win, no matter the cost

Then you died too young and it's a shame
That the world now hardly remembers your name
The Legend of Gary must continue to last
How soon they forget and bury the past

Did you fight in a bar, or was it a fall?
Now it's too late for him to tell all.
He's in his grave and we don't know why
What happened, what happened, how did you die?

Death usually ends things, but not for you
DRDOS was out there, and Novell said "Let's sue!"
Gates blackmailed and pressured for his DOS to score
Caldera inherits and the judge says "no more!"

In the year 2000 a judge orders some cures
Are you out there, Gary? DRDOS endures!
CP/M's gone and DRI too
But, Gary, we all owe a big debt to you