I missed something. It sure is fun diggin up possibly the earliest known instance of Bill Gates-bashing (I don't deny enjoying it). But presenting it without editorial comment like that makes it sound like you think they were right, or at least that the premise was on target.
I was getting ready to delve into my fuzzy memories and talk about how Altair Basic wound up in so many hands because while it was sold, it was just a piece of paper with holes punched in it with nothing to protect it but a copyright notice. Hardly a gift even then.
But no, a few minutes searching, and it turns out that even before it was sold, someone from MITS "gave" a friend of Dan Sokol's a copy by not keeping an eye on his stuff! Really now, if that bike that I chained to the bike rack by only a quick-release front wheel when I was twelve was a prototype I invented, that suddenly everyone was riding a month later, would they have any right to tell me I shouldn't have given it away?
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I missed something. It sure is fun diggin up possibly the earliest known instance of Bill Gates-bashing (I don't deny enjoying it). But presenting it without editorial comment like that makes it sound like you think they were right, or at least that the premise was on target.
I was getting ready to delve into my fuzzy memories and talk about how Altair Basic wound up in so many hands because while it was sold, it was just a piece of paper with holes punched in it with nothing to protect it but a copyright notice. Hardly a gift even then.
But no, a few minutes searching, and it turns out that even before it was sold, someone from MITS "gave" a friend of Dan Sokol's a copy by not keeping an eye on his stuff! Really now, if that bike that I chained to the bike rack by only a quick-release front wheel when I was twelve was a prototype I invented, that suddenly everyone was riding a month later, would they have any right to tell me I shouldn't have given it away?