RE: AN OPEN LETTER TO HOBBYISTS By William Henry Gates III February 3, 1976

Dear Bill,

I was only one year old when you wrote this letter, so please excuse my late reply.

Now, thirty some years later, the project that RMS has started ten years after your letter,
the www.gnu.org, and the subsequent branding of "open source" via ERS and sf.net among others, we have be able to recruit hundreds of thousands of programmer (if not millions),
and we have not had to pay them, they get paid, somehow. It just works!

We would like to thank you for all your efforts to make the software business viable.

We have competitive products in every sector of the software market for small and medium-sized enterprises. And even high-end solutions.

It has taken a while, but we have solved the problem.

In fact better than you.

You can now take all of your money and help to solve other problems like starvation, undereducation, and AIDS.

Thank you very much for your great effort.

We do not need you anymore.

The next generation will read about you in the history books,

Sincerely,

H4ck3rm1k3, and the one million man Army.


Original Message:
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February 3, 1976
AN OPEN LETTER TO HOBBYISTS
By
William Henry Gates III

To me, the most critical thing in the hobby market right now is the lack of good software courses, books and software itself. Without good software and an owner who understands programming, a hobby computer is wasted. Will quality software be written for the hobby market?

Almost a year ago, Paul Allen and myself, expecting the hobby market to expand, hired Monte Davidoff and developed Altair BASIC. Though the initial work took only two months, the three of us have spent most of the last year documenting, improving and adding features to BASIC. Now we have 4K, 8K, EXTENDED, ROM and DISK BASIC. The value of the computer time we have used exceeds \$40,000.

The feedback we have gotten from the hundreds of people who say they are using BASIC has all been positive. Two surprising things are apparent, however, 1) Most of these "users" never bought BASIC (less than 10% of all Altair owners have bought BASIC), and 2) The amount of royalties we have received from sales to hobbyists makes the time spent on Altair BASIC worth less than \$2 an hour.

Why is this? As the majority of hobbyists must be aware, most of you steal your software. Hardware must be paid for, but software is something to share. Who cares if the people who worked on it get paid?

Is this fair? One thing you don't do by stealing software is get back at MITS for some problem you may have had. MITS doesn't make money selling software. The royalty paid to us, the manual, the tape and the overhead make it a break-even operation. One thing you do do is prevent good software from being written. Who can afford to do professional work for nothing? What hobbyist can put 3-man years into programming, finding all bugs, documenting his product and distribute for free? 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.

I would appreciate letters from any one who wants to pay up, or has a suggestion or comment. Just write me at 1180 Alvarado SE, NO114, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 87108. Nothing would please me more than being able to hire ten programmers and deluge the hobby market with good software.


Bill Gates

General Partner, Micro-Soft