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Chyist Dec 10, 1998 B
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========================================================================= Date: Thu, 10 Dec 1998 06:27:05 -0500
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: Bruce Fancher <bruce@ITERATIVE.COM>
Subject: Re: Bill Gates on free software
In-Reply-To: <199812091845.NAA16354@straw.cs.brandeis.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0
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Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________
Given how many screeds I've seen from self-proclaimed "hacker advocates" like Eric Corley (publisher of 2600) and others that hackers are just using cycles which would otherwise be wasted, its funny how when the person taking advantage of the unused computer time is Bill Gates the activity suddenly takes on a sinister overtone. Regardless of whether Gates paid for the computer time, or BASIC was public domain, or Microsoft's subsequent offerings have been less than stellar, you've got to give the guy credit. He put an enormous amount of effort (and risk) into developing BASIC for the Altair, long before anyone else saw a market for it.
On the same note I was surprised at how tame the infamous letter from Gates to the hobbyists was. I had read about it in various books and articles and always had the impression that it was far nastier than it actually was. All he says in the letter is that he worked hard to write the software and he expects to be paid for its use. It was not unreasonable to send this letter since clearly people were pirating BASIC en masse. I think that the howls of outrage in response were out of guilt more than justifiable anger.
BTW, despite the rants of Richard Stallman and other free software Stalinist, Open Source is not about eliminating copyrights, or pirating software, or the end of commercial software. Frankly, Open Source is and will always be an important but limited niche. Despite what its participants and the journalistic cheerleading squad tell you it is often not the best of what is available in a given area. Too many cooks spoil the broth.
Bruce Fancher
______________________________________________________________________
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: Bruce Fancher <bruce@ITERATIVE.COM>
Subject: Re: Bill Gates on free software
In-Reply-To: <199812091845.NAA16354@straw.cs.brandeis.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
______________________________________________________________________
Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________
Given how many screeds I've seen from self-proclaimed "hacker advocates" like Eric Corley (publisher of 2600) and others that hackers are just using cycles which would otherwise be wasted, its funny how when the person taking advantage of the unused computer time is Bill Gates the activity suddenly takes on a sinister overtone. Regardless of whether Gates paid for the computer time, or BASIC was public domain, or Microsoft's subsequent offerings have been less than stellar, you've got to give the guy credit. He put an enormous amount of effort (and risk) into developing BASIC for the Altair, long before anyone else saw a market for it.
On the same note I was surprised at how tame the infamous letter from Gates to the hobbyists was. I had read about it in various books and articles and always had the impression that it was far nastier than it actually was. All he says in the letter is that he worked hard to write the software and he expects to be paid for its use. It was not unreasonable to send this letter since clearly people were pirating BASIC en masse. I think that the howls of outrage in response were out of guilt more than justifiable anger.
BTW, despite the rants of Richard Stallman and other free software Stalinist, Open Source is not about eliminating copyrights, or pirating software, or the end of commercial software. Frankly, Open Source is and will always be an important but limited niche. Despite what its participants and the journalistic cheerleading squad tell you it is often not the best of what is available in a given area. Too many cooks spoil the broth.
Bruce Fancher
______________________________________________________________________
