Open Letter to Hobbyists

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Bill Gates' Open Letter to Hobbyists from the Homebrew Computer Club Newsletter , January 1976

The Open Letter to Hobbyists (German Open Letter to Hobbyists ) is an open letter , the beginning of 1976 by Bill Gates , founder of Microsoft , to hobby - computer users constituted and organized in various computer magazines was printed.

background

The concern of this letter is the most important milestone in the development and distribution of proprietary (manufacturer-dependent) software in the home computer market . Likewise, it is described by some as an important milestone for the development of free software , because the letter states that every hobby user should pay for professionally developed software because otherwise they would be a software thief.

In the letter, Bill Gates expresses his frustration with Altair BASIC sales . He complains that although he has received a lot of praise for his development, which has now reached costs of $ 40,000, only a small proportion of all the praising users actually bought his product. If you only take the license fees that you have received from hobby users, the hourly wage is less than $ 2.

Gates complained that distributing unauthorized copies had the effect of discouraging developers from continuing to invest time and money writing professional software. You cheat them out of the fee due to them.

"Who can afford to do professional work for nothing?"

"Who can afford to do professional work without pay?"

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