30th Anniversary of Gates' Letter to HCC 544
suso writes "30 years ago today, Bill Gates wrote the infamous Open Letter to Hobbyists about licensing of Altair BASIC to the Homebrew Computer Club. Looking back it's interesting to read this emotionally written document as it is probably Gate's first publicly written opinion about licensing software." From the letter: "The fact is, no one besides us has invested a lot of money in hobby software. We have written 6800 BASIC, and are writing 8080 APL and 6800 APL, but there is very little incentive to make this software available to hobbyists. Most directly, the thing you do is theft. What about the guys who re-sell Altair BASIC, aren't they making money on hobby software? Yes, but those who have been reported to us may lose in the end. They are the ones who give hobbyists a bad name, and should be kicked out of any club meeting they show up at."
It's true! (Score:5, Funny)
ed
That's a joke, son.
It is true! (Score:4, Funny)
Well it looks like Gates was right when it comes to MS software. Damn those hobbyists....
I agree! (Score:5, Funny)
Hardware must be paid for, but soft-ware is something to share. Who cares if the people who worked on it get paid?
Gates actually proposed a scheme... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:It's true! (Score:4, Funny)
with 10 programmers (Score:5, Funny)
Arr, matey! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Your ad hominem argument... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Already a hypocrite 30 years ago! (Score:3, Funny)
Yeah, at least when Stallman wasted MIT's resources on his crusade, he was consistent, since he believes things should be shared, whether or not the owner agrees.
Re:Attitude hasn't changed much (Score:5, Funny)
As comprehensive, eloquent, well-researched, logical, meticulously detailed responses go, this one is a doozie.
Re:Great Shashdot grammar, as usual (Score:3, Funny)
Without posts like this, in about 20 more years any random collection of keystrokes will express some sort of valid English thought.
I no u c wat I m3an.
Re:Some Reading Material For You. (Score:1, Funny)
Uh-oh, someone needs to call Oracle, Computer Associates, Symantec, Apple Computer, Corel, Novell, IBM, PeopleSoft, Siebel, SAP, Sage, Compuware and all the other thousands of software companies in the planet and tell them that they are going to "sink in red ink".
Oh, and someone call, um, what's their name... ah, I forget. They're in Redmond. They'll want to know about this too.
PDP-10 time wants to be free (Score:5, Funny)
Re:... says the guy who stole gobs of PDP-10 time (Score:3, Funny)
Bill Gates, Paul Allen and, two other hackers from Lakeside formed the Lakeside Programmers Group in late 1968. They were determined to find a way to apply their computer skills in the real world. The first opportunity to do this was a direct result of their mischievous activity with the school's computer time. The Computer Center Corporation's business was beginning to suffer due to the systems weak security and the frequency that it crashed. Impressed with Gates and the other Lakeside computer addicts' previous assaults on their computer, the Computer Center Corporation decided to hire the students to find bugs and expose weaknesses in the computer system. In return for the Lakeside Programming Group's help, the Computer Center Corporation would give them unlimited computer time [Wallace, 1992, p. 27]. The boys could not refuse. Gates is quoted as saying "It was when we got free time at C-cubed (Computer Center Corporation) that we really got into computers. I mean, then I became hardcore. It was day and night" [Wallace, 1992, p. 30]. Although the group was hired just to find bugs, they also read any computer related material that the day shift had left behind. The young hackers would even pick employees for new information. It was here that Gates and Allen really began to develop the talents that would lead to the formation of Microsoft seven years later.
I find it horribly ironic that Gates and Allen helped improve the security of C-Cubed's computer system seeing as their Windows products have done a lot to lower security in the years since though. ;)
Damn the HCC! Damn them to hell! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:... says the guy who stole gobs of PDP-10 time (Score:2, Funny)
There is nothing 'natural' about the fact that you left a car a car in the street and you somehow have a right to expect that it will be there when you come back. No, you don't. The government gives you monopoly on usage of the vehucle through the fiction of 'ownership', even though you are not deprived of anything if someone takes the car and returns it before you need it again.
Seriously, you folks pay full dollar for a 'Snickers' in a candy store when it's just a stupid piece of chocolate worth much less. The governement gives an artificial monopoly on the very words you see - no one else can sell "Snickers" even though the recipe is incredible easy to duplicate and no one is depriving Mars the right to continue selling their own Snickers bar if I happen to sell my Snickers bar as well.
I should log in but this is too ranty for karma burn.
Re:Damn the HCC! Damn them to hell! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Damn the HCC! Damn them to hell! (Score:3, Funny)
I can't resist... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Damn the HCC! Damn them to hell! (Score:3, Funny)
tech support guy: So what OS are you running?
Customer: Windows ME.
tech support guy: Mmmffff, please hold... Ha ha ha ha, oh jesus... Oh sorry, can you disconnect the peripherals first.