:09:02
Bill Gates of the recently formed Microsoft,
:09:06
wrote an open letter to the community
:09:08
where he made a point by point argument for
the relatively new concept of proprietary software
:09:16
up to that point, the practice of computer users
had been to freely pass around software
:09:21
with not much thought given to
its ownership
:09:25
Known as An Open Letter to Hobbyists,
Bill Gates writes,
:09:28
"To me the most critical thing
in the hobby market right now
:09:31
is the lack of good software courses,
books and software itself.
:09:35
Without good software and an owner
who understands programming,
:09:39
A hobby computer is wasted.
:09:41
Will quality software be written
for the hobby market?
:09:45
Gates goes on to write,
"The feedback we have gotten from
:09:48
the hundreds of people who say they are
using BASIC has all been positive.
:09:52
Two surprising things are apparent, however.
:09:55
1) Most of these "users" never
bought BASIC, and
:09:58
2) The amount of royalties we have received
from sales to hobbyists
:10:02
makes the time spent on of Altair BASIC
worth less than 2 dollars an hour
:10:07
Why is this?
:10:08
As the majority of hobbyists must be aware,
:10:11
most of you steal your software.
:10:14
Hardware must be paid for but software
is something to share.
:10:17
Who cares if the people who worked
on it get paid?
:10:20
Is this fair?
:10:22
One thing you don't do by stealing software
:10:24
is get back at MITS for some problem
you may have had
:10:27
MITS doesn't make money selling software.
:10:30
One thing you do do is prevent
good software from being written.
:10:34
Who can afford to do professional work for nothing?
:10:37
What hobbyist can put 3-man years into programming,
:10:40
finding all bugs, documenting his product
and distribute it for free?
:10:44
The fact is,
:10:45
no one besides us has invested a lot of money
in hobby software.
:10:50
What about the guys who resell Altair BASIC?
:10:53
Aren't they making money on hobby software?
:10:56
Yes, but those who have been
reported to us may lose in the end.