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Microsoft didn't like it then, any more than now:

http://www.tranquileye.com/cyber/1976/gates_open_l etter_to_hobbyists.html

Would you like the Ironic part??

Bill Gates encouraged MANY MANY people to flock to open source from almost day one. His "Basic" for the altair, even before he released his very first commercial program, his attitude towards users and others was so awful that many people hated him from day one. He sent a foaming at the mouth rant as an open Letter to all

I remember sending him a letter at the ripe old age of 10 asking about when BASIC was going to be released so I could play with it on my dad's computer at work.

I was Flamed hard in a rude reply about how software Thieves were delaying it and as a child it was beyond my capabilities anyways... I wish I still had the letter and I remember how it solidified in me a dis-taste for commercial software. I was writing assembly for my Commodore KIM-1 single board computer at that time and was excited with the idea of being able to easily program a real powerhouse computer.

Bill gates has been driving people to Open source ever cince he started in the business.

People knew sex, and its intricacies, but were discrete about it. It wasn't something they depicted on television, or explicitly in leisure books.

Lest anyone forget, this was the same Homebrew Computer Club where a certain Bill Gates got a little upset by the way some people were sharing software. RMS was just 23 years old then and hadn't had his Vision by then. That would take another nine years .....

I wonder what would have happened if the others at the HCC had decided to beat the whining nerd senseless with suitably-sized pieces of constructional timber instead of capitulating to his ridiculous assertions of ownership?

Hah, they'll probably GPL notepad.

As William Henry Gates III (also known as billg@microsoft.com) proves in this letter, he's a tad paranoid regarding the use of his software.

I conclude from there (and from the evil empires behavior in general), that he would be even more paranoid to reveal any source code to the general public, because somebody might er! steal it.

It's likely, that this involves all of Microsofts software ("Shared" source initiative not whitstanding) up and including WinHelloWorld(tm)

Of course, the argument is centuries out of date. The examples are decades old. Let's make it more relevant! Art and Technology has been around for a long, long time. Incidentally Art Technology Group (ATG), which among other things created Dynamo which is now a huge application server product, is from the MIT Media Lab.

For example,
1965: Sony introduces the first monochrome half-inch tape Video Rover portapak-used almost immediately by New York video artist Nam June Paik.

And the contemporary media art scene is not about using photoshop. Even if you just count using digital technology, this has been around for years and it is vibrant. One well-known artist (Ingo Gunther) has used satellite transponders in his work, and one project (Kanal X) involved setting up a pirate TV station in Leipzig the transmitter of which was a sculpture. Ars Electronica has been going on for 20 years. DEAF has been held since 1986. ZKM has been open since '97 though many of its exhibitors have been active for far longer. The Getty has a collection of art and technology works from 1966 to 1993. Japan has one of the best media art infrastructures (hurt by the economy to be sure) which draw artists from Japan and overseas to places like the ICC, the International Academy of Media Arts and Sciences (IAMAS), and other spaces. Often the artists are in fact visiting professors who teach technology students (especially programmers) in universities.

Not only have artists always sought to make use of the latest media, but media artists often have to develop the cutting edge themselves in order to get their message across. This is true now that we use supercomputers like the Silicon Graphics Reality Engine, as it was when bromides and daguerrotypes took advantage of advances in industrial chemistry. Art drives science and vice-versa. I don't think you can point to any time when art and technology were not closely related.

While I don't usually have so much trouble with Mr. Katz' work, this time I'd have to say that sweeping generalizations without any enlightening examples must be hurtful to slashdotters' potential enjoyment and participation in some of the most exciting art in the world. Where's the beef? Many cutting edge artists work with very talented programmers and need their help badly. In particular, people who have a flair for networking, opengl, and hardware setup/troubleshooting (oh don't forget circuitry and wireless!) are really needed. Linux is extremely relevant now that machines have gotten so powerful, and the preemptive kernel sounds great for art! Artists who are interested in technology might like to check out MAX which is a great MIDI music and device controller.

It would be useful to point this out with substantial explanation of what this means for this site's users. Art gives context and meaning to budding researchers. And talented artists often come up with the new concepts that drive innovation. A public artwork can drive personal study and honing of one's technological skills like nothing else.

I think the reason it seems new now is that we've got so darn many computers now but little funding for artists (in the U.S.). There are also some very talented young artists who are taking advantage of the latest technology. More about them on Slashdot might be fun! How about a new icon and a media art section? Here are some neat online exhibits at the NYC MOMA.

Darn, and here I was under the delusion that the first computer game was a socially engineered version of hide-n-go-seek developed by the Altiar loving Home-Brew club, otherwise known as "steal Bill's BASIC."