
	Where results make sense

Topic: Open Letter to Hobbyists

Related Topics

Open letter

Bill Gates

Bill Gates (disambiguation)

Altair BASIC programming language

Microsoft

Melinda French

Altair 8800

Nothing So Strange

BASIC programming language

Python programming language

February 3

Nintendo

February 15

Leonardo DaVinci

StrongARM

In the News (Wed 15 Feb 12)

EXECUTIVE POWER

Iran

ANALYSIS

Pakistan

Family compact

	[No title] (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-08)
		Open source software is software written by programmers who freely distribute their source code for anyone to review and modify.
		As both the open and “closed” source movements gained momentum, and computers began playing a major role in every aspect of society, many were beginning to see that having this liberty was beneficial to a variety of interests, ranging from personal to educational to entrepreneurial.
		One of the reasons GNU and open source movements have been highly successful is due largely to the benefits of peer-review; when a piece of software is released, you invite the public to view line-by-line what is happening in your programming.
	blindcry.dod.net /building_blocks_for_tomorrow.html (2829 words)

	Microsoft didn't really pioneer open source...did it? \| TG Daily (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-08)
		For open source, one of the latter group is a 1976 letter written by Bill Gates, back when "Micro-Soft" had a hyphen and corporate headquarters was in New Mexico, which is offered by many as proof that the man - or, more literally, the boy - had exclusive capitalist interests from the very beginning.
		It's known today as simply the Open Letter to Hobbyists, and it's a plea from this then-unknown, almost bankrupt, author of BASIC interpreters to the folks who were attending those first conferences, to please refrain from sharing the source code of the interpreters themselves.
		The grandson of a banker, the author of this letter is appealing to its readers' appreciation of the commercial interests behind the germination of a new industry, hoping such appreciation existed.
	www.tgdaily.com /2006/04/11/microsoft_didnt_really_pioneer_open_source (2210 words)

	Books \| Rebel Code: Linus Torvalds, Open Source, and the War for the Soul of Software by Glyn Moody
		Gates wrote his Open Letter to condemn what he saw as software piracy - making illegal copies of the program he and Allen had written - but which many users then regarded as part of the computer community's long tradition of sharing useful tools.
		In the light of his Open letter to Hobbyists, the open source movement emerges as Bill Gates' worst nightmare magnified a thousand times.
		This was the ethic that Bill Gates had lambasted in his Open Letter to Hobbyists.
	books.guardian.co.uk /print/0,,4168356-101284,00.html (1399 words)

	Open Letter to Hobbyists - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		The Open Letter to Hobbyists was an open letter written by Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, to early personal computer hobbyists, in which Gates expresses dismay at the rampant copyright infringement taking place in the hobbyist community, particularly with regard to his company's software.
		The letter, dated February 3, 1976, was published in the Homebrew Computer Club Newsletter (Volume 2, Issue 1), and was written in response to an incident at an earlier club meeting.
		Some contend the letter became an important milestone for the development and expansion of "proprietary software" in the retail software market.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Open_Letter_to_Hobbyists (420 words)

	Dr. Dobb's \| An Open Letter on Open Letters \| July 22, 2001 (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-08)
		Open letters are a curious form of communication commonly addressed to a specific person or organization, but not really intended for the recipient.
		Rather, open letters are meant to draw widespread attention to an issue of presumably widespread concern.
		In our corner of the world, one of the most famous open letters was Bill Gates's February 1976 "An Open Letter to Hobbyists" (http://www.blinkenlights.com/classiccmp/gateswhine.html), in which he called the practice of sharing software "stealing." But open letters come in all shapes and sizes.
	www.ddj.com /184404630 (881 words)

	Open Web Letter - An Open Web Letter to Hobbyists (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-08)
		As the majority of hobbyists must be aware, most of you steal your software.
		They are the ones who give hobbyists a bad name, and should be kicked out of any club meeting they show up at.
		Manage and edit this letter if you are the author.
	www.openwebletter.com /view/np0p1m4mqsm (537 words)

	Potter, Volume VI, Issue 5, Richmond Journal of Law and Technology
		Open source is not a company, but rather, a community; projects are established and programmers communicate and contribute software building blocks to each other via the Internet.
		Because many individual open source programmers receive little compensation for their efforts, they may be unwilling and unable to assume higher risks of lawsuits for breach of warranty.
		Open source advocates are concerned that the UCITA will allow proprietary developers to "establish secret file formats and protocols, which there would be no lawful way for [open source programmers] to figure out."[213] Thus, the UCITA is a double-edged sword.
	law.richmond.edu /jolt/v6i5/article3.html (14002 words)

	[iosn-general] The Economist... on open source business
		By focussing on Open Source, and lower costs, it hides from issue of the politics of software (or, more broadly speaking, knowledge-creation), and the emergence of the idea of freedom among the hacker.
		In other words, open source is starting to look much less like a curiosity of digital culture and more like an enterprise, with its own risks and rewards.
		In other words, the openness of open source does not necessarily mean it is anonymous.
	lists.apdip.net /pipermail/iosn-general/2006-March/000308.html (3025 words)

	Bill Gates 4 world leader!
		AN OPEN LETTER TO HOBBYISTS February 3, 1976 By William Henry Gates III An Open Letter to Hobbyists To me, the most critical thing in the hobby market right now is the lack of good software courses, books and software itself.
		Unlike other operating systems, Windows will always be an open platform available at a reasonable price because that’s the key to attracting new software development and giving customers the kind of low-cost, innovative PCs they want and have come to expect.
		The PC has provided millions of workers with the tools to do their jobs better, empowered students to become lifelong learners, and enabled consumers to enjoy exciting new forms of information, communication and entertainment on the Internet.
	jthz.com /gates.htm (1726 words)

	Do-it-yourself giant brains! - Salon
		But to Gates' dismay, he had discovered that less than 10 percent of all Altair owners were paying for a copy of his BASIC -- instead, hackers were making their own copies and giving them away.
		For some, it marks the birth of a billionaire, outlining in bald terms the psychology of one of the most successful businessmen of the 20th century.
		And as I probe Felsenstein's memory of the letter from Bill Gates, I begin to see exactly why the Homebrew hackers got so mad at being called thieves even as they blithely admitted that they were copying someone else's copyrighted software.
	dir.salon.com /story/tech/fsp/2000/06/22/chapter_2_part_two/?pn=5 (1268 words)

	Online Ethics Center for Engineering & Science: Altair History (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-08)
		But a copy of Altair BASIC that was stolen at a hobbyist club meeting sparked the first major software piracy controversy, causing Bill Gates to write an open letter to computer hobbyists, which really stirred up the animals, and began an ethics debate on software copying that still continues on today.
		In the mid-seventies, computer hobbyist clubs were springing up all around the country, and MITS had a van and a "Van Man" who traveled around the country giving demos at these clubs.
		Although many computer hobbyists of the mid-seventies were upset by MITS pricing and software licensing policies, much of those same software licensing policies are with us today, having become the standard way of "protecting" consumer software.
	onlineethics.org /contest/altair (2280 words)

	Show me the money...
		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.
		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.
	homepage.mac.com /mudbug65/letters/b_gates.html (423 words)

	cyblogue by Chakra Yadavalli
		Open source software requires publication of document protection techniques, whereas the DMCA prohibits such disclosures.
		In an open letter, Raymond, president of the Open Source Initiative, writes: "Sun's insistence on continuing tight control of the Java code has damaged Sun's long-term interests by throttling acceptance of the language in the open-source community, ceding the field (and probably the future) to scripting-language competitors like Python and Perl."
		Many praise the action, opining that the current number of more than 50 open source licenses is too confusing and should drop to less than 10.
	jroller.com /page/cyblogue/weblog/the_open_road_a_history (3009 words)

	Linux News: Commentary: Dual Licensing: Having Your Cake and Eating It Too
		A major advantage of the open- source model is that having many pairs of eyes looking for problems makes bugs easier to find and fix.
		It may be that the software released under the GPL version has a superior modification that is not found in the proprietary version.
		advocates, the dual licensing model is just a way for commercial companies to reap the fruits of open sourcing without sharing the benefits.
	www.linuxinsider.com /story/38172.html (1404 words)

	Open minds - 31 July 2004 - New Scientist
		Political scientist Steven Weber takes up the challenge to explain what is meant by "open source" software, and how Linux grew out of Unix.
		Open source is often referred to as "free", but what this means is freedom to play with the nuts and bolts of source code and improve it for the common good.
		Weber usefully looks back at how Bill Gates and Microsoft nailed quite different colours to their mast in 1976, with an open letter to computer hobbyists, accusing them of stealing one of Microsoft's first programs.
	www.newscientist.com /article.ns?id=mg18324586.400 (187 words)

	Open Letter To Hobbyists (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-08)
		In the letter, Gates expresses frustration over the fact that most computer hobbyist s who were currently using his company's Altair BASIC software had not paid for it.
		Gates asserts that such widespread unauthorized copying in effect discourages developers from investing time and money into creating quality software.
		''received from sales to hobbyists makes the time spent on Altair BASIC worth less than $2 an hour.
	www.seattleluxury.com /encyclopedia/entry/Open_Letter_to_Hobbyists (593 words)

	EOS Editorial —The Times They Are a Changing @ ENTERPRISE OPEN SOURCE MAGAZINE (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-08)
		However, now halfway through 2006 the Open Source ranks are growing by leaps and bounds, and if you don't consider this new breed of Open Source solutions in your IT decision-making process then you'll surely sink like a stone.
		As we move forward with Enterprise Open Source Magazine I hope to be able to highlight technologies and solutions like Linux but also other Open Source solutions that might appeal to enterprise users on other platforms.
		Mark R. Hinkle, editor-in-chief of Enterprise Open Source Magazine, is the vice president, Community and Business Development at Zenoss Inc. He serves as a founder of the Open Management consortium and is the author "Windows to Linux Business Desktop Migration" (Charles River Media).
	opensource.sys-con.com /read/244308.htm (1445 words)

	Elf Qrin's Hacking Lab (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-08)
		February 3, 1976 An Open Letter to Hobbyists --------------------------- To me, the most critical thing in the hobby market right now is the lack of good software courses, books and software itself.
		What hobbyist can put 3-man years into programming, finding all bugs, documenting his pro- duct and distribute for free?
		We have written 6800 BASIC, and are writing 8080 APL and 6800 APL, but there is very lit- tle incentive to make this software available to hobbyists.
	www.elfqrin.com /docs/hakref/BGates_opletthobb.html (457 words)

	DigiBarn Newsletters: Bill Gates' Open Letter to Hobbyists in Homebrew Club Newsletter Vol 2, Issue 1 (Feb 3, 1976)
		Volume 2 issue 1 of the Homebrew Computer Club newsletter contained the now famous letter from Bill Gates to the hobbyist community regarding the illegal copying of his then Micro-Soft company's BASIC paper tape.
		Click on the thumbnail below to see the letter as it appeared in this issue and also read the full text below.
		In this issue: the famous letter from Bill Gates to the hobbyist community
	www.digibarn.com /collections/newsletters/homebrew/V2_01/gatesletter.html (619 words)

	[No title]
		February 3, 1976 An open Letter to Hobbysts -------------------------- To me, the most critical thing in the hobby market right now is the lack of good software courses, books and software itself.
		They are the ones who give hobbysts 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 ot comment.
	www.flora.ca /gates_letter.txt (457 words)

	Slashdot \| 30th Anniversary of Gates' Letter to HCC
		Should his venture fail, he had a vast multitude of others opened to him, and I know it from personal experience that the business community's memory is shorter than that of a particularly forgetful goldfish.
		I remember the time when this letter was written and although I don't agree with his position, I think the tone of his letter was appropriate.
		One is the general argument that developers deserve to get paid ("What hobbyist can put 3-man years into programming, finding all bugs, documenting his product and distribute for free?"), and the other is that he specifically deserves to be paid ("The value of the computer time we have used exceeds $40,000.").
	rss.slashdot.org /Slashdot/slashdot?m=3485 (7354 words)

	Open Source Software News: Dual Licensing: Having Your Cake and Eating It Too (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-08)
		Back in 1976, Bill Gates wrote an open letter to hobbyists.
		What hobbyist can put three years into programming, finding all the bugs, documenting his product, and distribute it for free?"
		Today, Gates has to eat those words because the open-source movement has proven that it is possible to give something away for free and still make money off of it.
	www.ossi-news.org /archives/001099.html (246 words)

	Computer Source Magazine: Inside XP: Office & Activation Part 2
		As far back as 1975, computer hobbyists were making copies of the MBASIC interpreter and swapping them freely at both private meetings and public conventions.
		When Bill Gates became aware that Altair BASIC was being openly and shamelessly copied by large groups at these get-togethers, he wrote “An Open Letter to Hobbyists,” which was published in the February 3, 1976 issue of the MITS Computer Notes monthly newsletter.
		Remember, it was the casual copying of Altair BASIC that prompted Gates’ “An Open Letter to Hobbyists” twenty-five years ago.
	www.computersourcemag.com /articles/viewer.asp?a=561 (3920 words)

	Open letter - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		Many of the epistles of the Bible are open letters
		Bill Gates's Open Letter to Hobbyists attacking software piracy
		Open Web Letter - for composing and publishing open letters online
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Open_letter (179 words)

	Free as in Freedom: Chapter 7
		Symbolics executives elected to enforce the letter of the license.
		Open Letter to Hobbyists" had excoriated the notion of communal software development.
		Although few hackers at the AI Lab saw the missive, Gates' 1976 letter nevertheless represented the changing attitude toward software both among commercial software companies and commercial software developers.
	www.oreilly.com /openbook/freedom/ch07.html (6163 words)

	CRN \| ?An Open Letter to Hobbyists.? (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-08)
		In February 1976, Bill Gates, then selling or licensing the BASIC software program for Altairs, penned an impassioned tirade against free, copied, unlicensed or pirated software called "An Open Letter to Hobbyists." It was sent to every major computer publication in the country:
		But there is very little incentive to make this software available to hobbyists.
		I would appreciate letters from anyone who wants to pay up, or has a suggestion or comment.
	www.crn.com /sections/software/software.jhtml?articleId=18801815 (521 words)

	30th Anniversary of "An Open Letter To Hobbyists" By William Henry Gates III (reddit.com) (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-08)
		30th Anniversary of "An Open Letter To Hobbyists" By William Henry Gates III (blinkenlights.com)
		I guess Micro-Soft's bad experience with the hobbyist market explains why their stance on DRM is:
		We don't want this technology to be available to every hobbyist.
	reddit.com /info/17mp/comments (335 words)

Try your search on: Qwika (all wikis)