a few other things. ibm was not aware of QDOS by seattle computerand would not have bought it from them anyway i suspect, and microsoft only bought the system because they knew ibm were looking for a system and wanted in on the money.
also, cp/m was not a seattle computer product, can't remember who it was by right now actually, but qdos illegally contained some code from cp/m, and so does msdos to this day.
also, compaq really held back for the better part of a year even when they could have surpassed ibm. they did not want to risk bringing out a pc that was better than ibm, and then have ibm bring one out because the buying public would all buy ibm's machines which of course would not have been compatible with compaq's. Compaq waited a long time before risking its neck bringing out a superior pc to the 286 (which was a total shambles of a cpu, never being intended for desktop use), and compaq first got a consortium of 4 other computer manufacturers to agree to all support the same standards before any of them went ahead and produced anything.
I can get more info if you like, coincidentally i am studying this in my first university module which i start next month.
by the way i really like the article. well done, well done, keep it up.