[HN Gopher] An Open Letter to Hobbyists (1976)
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An Open Letter to Hobbyists (1976)
Author : qawwads
Score : 29 points
Date : 2023-08-19 19:16 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (archive.nytimes.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (archive.nytimes.com)
| gumby wrote:
| I'm surprised this is on the NYT site, as I thought it was first
| published in the homebrew computer club newsletter or creative
| computing.
|
| I do remember that letter, not from 1976 when I was too young to
| grok it (or even encounter it), but from a couple of years later
| when it was still controversial and I was just starting to get
| into S-100.
| shrubble wrote:
| Funny that Gates mentions "$40K of computer time" when he and
| Paul Allen were hacking the computers paid for by someone else,
| and figuring out how to get themselves ... free computer time.
|
| See comment and reference at
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18279370
| acidburnNSA wrote:
| It's been pointed out elsewhere that the $40,000 of computer time
| referred to was largely on their utilization of
| government/publically-funded computers.
| andrewstuart wrote:
| If you enjoy history of computing then I can very strongly
| recommend you get the audiobook of "The Innovators"
| https://www.amazon.com/The-Innovators-Walter-Isaacson-audiob...
|
| The audiobook I found thoroughly entertaining.
| ThrowawayR2 wrote:
| Much as people will hate hearing this, ultimately Gates won the
| argument. Formerly pro-FOSS software developers are turning away
| from FOSS to "open core" and other fake FOSS licenses that are
| actually proprietary to try to monetize their software using
| arguments largely identical to Gates' that it's unfair for
| software to be used by businesses and corporations without its
| creators getting some compensation for it.
| bsuvc wrote:
| Interesting window into the history that likely shaped
| Microsoft's view of customers for decades since then.
|
| I'd say MS still probably has that attitude baked into their
| company, treating customers as adversaries that need to be
| protected against.
|
| They are definitely not known for their customer service, but
| they ARE known for their complex licensing and sometimes heavy-
| handed enforcement, that I guess maybe one could draw a line back
| to this as the source.
| Zambyte wrote:
| > I'd say MS still probably has that attitude baked into their
| company, treating customers as adversaries that need to be
| protected against.
|
| This is true of every company that sells intellectual
| "property" instead of material objects or labor.
| ozim wrote:
| I'd say this letter is not that far from OSS maintainers that
| have quite often breakdowns because no one wants to pay and
| everyone wants bug fixes.
|
| It is perfectly fine to want to be compensated for one's work.
| jbirer wrote:
| This was the point when Bill Gates got red pilled about human
| nature and decided to focus on profit instead of "sharing the
| joy".
| BirAdam wrote:
| I know it isn't popular to have this point of view, but I think
| Gates was right at the time. The work Microsoft did on BASIC back
| then was good, and it made computers usable. That people wouldn't
| pay made the entire thing worthless. This ended up being why
| Microsoft went for hardware makers and BASIC came on ROM and
| MSDOS came with your PC: it was the only way to make any money on
| software. Today, everything people use aside from an OS (or in
| the case of the Linux or BSD folks, including the OS) is open
| source or it's SaaS. The SaaS phenomenon gets people to pay EVEN
| more for software, so it will never end. The same with crappy
| apps on phones that are charged monthly or annually.
| saulpw wrote:
| Bill Gates was 20 years old at the time he wrote this.
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(page generated 2023-08-19 23:01 UTC)