30th Anniversary of Gates' Letter to HCC

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."

Comments

Re:The right to piracy

[robertjw]

Learn to spell if you want to get your point across:"...the thrid world..."

You might want to change that to "Learn to type" or "Learn to proofread so spelling/grammar/typing Nazis don't bring it up later". I'm guessing the poster can spell third since he got all of the other words right.

Re:Attitude hasn't changed much

[rts008]

"The name has its meaning and history but explaining them to you would be a waste of time."

Since I'm sooo misinformed, explain it to me, how do you "know" it's a waste of time....all knowing one.

"The name has its meaning and history but explaining them to you would be a waste of time."

It does not gall me at all, you were the one whining about it, not me.

"My theme? Not much of a surpirse, really, but it appears that reading comprehension is not what one could call your strong suit."

My reading comprehension is quite high, where's your evidence for this?

We can keep this crap up all night, but I'm not willing to waste my time on the likes of you unless you can come up with supporting evidence (right or wrong, just something other than insulting remarks), so as I said- get a clue....you are FAR MORE important in your own mind than you are in anyone elses.....get over it.

Hey that dollar sign

[ishmaelflood]

is brilliant. I've never seen it used that way before. You are so fucking cool.