Oral History of Paul Laughton

Interviewed by Bruce Damer, with Len Shustek, on August 14, 2013, in Mountain View, California, © Computer History Museum For much of his career, Paul Laughton was a contract software developer. One memorable assignment, when he was working for Shepardson Microsystems in 1978, was the creation of the Apple II DOS file system. Working for Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, with the assistance of a few other Apple employees, he completed the entire project in seven months. In this interview Paul describes that project, and the prior experiences that made him such a perfect candidate for the job. * Note: Transcripts represent what was said in the interview. However, to enhance meaning or add clarification, interviewees have the opportunity to modify this text afterward. This may result in discrepancies between the transcript and the video. Please refer to the transcript for further information - Visit for more information about the Computer History Museum's Oral History Collection.