Cyhist Jul 9 1996 E

Date: Tue, 9 Jul 1996 23:14:24 -0700
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From: Nelson Winkless To: "Multiple recipients of list cpsr-history@cpsr.org" Subject: CM> First PC, MITS, Altair, 1995 reunion.
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Sender: Nelson Winkless Subject: CM: Something to stir other recollections

The following item (slightly edited) was published in The ABQ
Correspondent a few months ago, after the MITS reunion. Maybe it will
bring some other thoughts to mind among readers of the CM posts.
The subject of the third paragraph seems to stir passions, while
reinforcing the thesis that "History is just people doing things."

THE REUNION
As planned, a passel of oldtimers gathered in Albuquerque in June [1995] to
celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the first personal computer, produced here
by a company oddly called MITS. Most of the key people were among the host,
as they were at the 10th anniversary. Ed Roberts (the Fearless Leader of
MITS, who came up with the Altair computer), Eddie Currie (Ed's friend and
lieutenant, still a figure in the industry), Paul Allen (partner in
Microsoft), and David Bunnell (who has published a series of blockbuster
computer magazines -- Personal Computing, PC Magazine, PC WORLD, MAC WORLD,
and now New Media) were there, but Bill Gates didn't make it.

David thought Bill had written Currie a note saying he'd be glad to see
folks...but Ed Roberts is still mad at him, and he didn't want to spend an
uncomfortable evening with him. "Ed *is* still mad, isn't he?" I said.
"Oh yes!" said David. (Ed had argued in court that the Microsoft software
was developed as work-for-hire while the fellows were employed by MITS. Bill
and Paul argued that Microsoft was licensing the work product to MITS. Bill
and Paul won...and this is being typed on a computer using Microsoft DOS and
Windows, not MITS DOS and Windows.)

David made a point worth remembering: commentators often discount the MITS
role in creating the personal computer, pointing to the years of visionary
work done at PARC, Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center. "The fact is, " said
David, "we didn't know anything about that. We just hauled off and made a
computer that an ordinary person could buy and use. It seems to me that one
absolutely essential feature of a personal computer is that a person is able
to get one. MITS produced the first computer an ordinary person could buy."

Dar Scott was startled to find a display of 18-20 year old MITS artifacts
that included a board he'd designed...and was even more excited to see an
operating computer that contained another of those boards...still chugging
away, with about 20kb of RAM and a mass memory cassette holding 72kb. Wow.
One looks forward to 2005.

--Nels Winkless
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