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========================================================================= Date: Wed, 9 Dec 1998 00:58:27 -0600
Reply-To: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> Sender: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> From: Doug Yowza <yowza@YOWZA.COM>
Subject: Re: Bill Gates on Free Software
In-Reply-To: <19981208113955.B29434@cisco.com> MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
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Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________
On Tue, 8 Dec 1998, Robert Napier wrote:
>[From the Gates' letter]
>>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 question I've always had about this paragraph is what computer time Gates is refering to. Is he saying that he or Micro-soft paid $40k to someone, or is he trying to apply timeshare machine charges to his hobby machines, or did he use $40k worth of system time for commercial gain without paying the owner of the system?
The latter, I think. The Smithsonian interview of Gates goes into how he got time on the PDP-10 for cross-development on an 8080 simulator:
http://innovate.si.edu/smith/history/gates/gatestoc.htm
I kind of miss the old "computer time" accounting. It made you feel like a big spender, but I could never get the thing to give me change when I didn't use up my allotment.
-- Doug
______________________________________________________________________
Reply-To: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> Sender: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> From: Doug Yowza <yowza@YOWZA.COM>
Subject: Re: Bill Gates on Free Software
In-Reply-To: <19981208113955.B29434@cisco.com> MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
______________________________________________________________________
Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________
On Tue, 8 Dec 1998, Robert Napier wrote:
>[From the Gates' letter]
>>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 question I've always had about this paragraph is what computer time Gates is refering to. Is he saying that he or Micro-soft paid $40k to someone, or is he trying to apply timeshare machine charges to his hobby machines, or did he use $40k worth of system time for commercial gain without paying the owner of the system?
The latter, I think. The Smithsonian interview of Gates goes into how he got time on the PDP-10 for cross-development on an 8080 simulator:
http://innovate.si.edu/smith/history/gates/gatestoc.htm
I kind of miss the old "computer time" accounting. It made you feel like a big spender, but I could never get the thing to give me change when I didn't use up my allotment.
-- Doug
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