After the long drought (a month!) Without posting anything I have prepared some articles, which in this November I return to the activity of this blog. Well, for starters, let's talk about a fact that from my point of view is quite significant, but its real importance at that time was not so much, but yes, he gave a lot to talk about. Speak of the letter written by Bill Gates to Homebrew Computer Club .
Bill Gates, as by now everyone knows, was the founder with Paul Allen of Microsoft, the largest computer company in the world and for some years the biggest company in the world and, in general. But in February 1976, which was published the letter from Bill Gates at Microsoft were four boys playing at being entrepreneurs. Did I say four? I did not actually reach that amount. But one thing.
Bill Gates, before he founded Microsoft, and had tried to create his own company, Traf-O-Data , along with his friend Paul Allen in 1972. If we consider that Bill Gates was born in 1955, indeed, had the age of 17 years (well, almost since he was born in late 55) when he tried to create their first business. This first experience was neither good nor bad, and if not for being the first company would have passed unnoticed in the annals of history. But this story is also symbolic importance: it demonstrates the entrepreneurial spirit of Gates and Allen.
Years passed and eventually Bill Gates at Harvard studying law. However, from a very young Bill Gates was very attracted by the computers of its time, especially for those who had at Harvard, a Digital PDP 6. So much for Gates to Allen was all a revelation to discover on the cover of the January 1975 Popular Electronics magazine a personal computer, the Altair 8800 .
However, while the Altair was a complete computer (for which he was a computer at the time), was missing something very important to be fairly useful, software. At that time there was nothing, absolutely nothing created software for home computers. Hell, there was not even home computers. So Bill Gates and Paul Allen started working on a version of BASIC that would work on the Altair. As they had no Altair to be tested (no not many in the world) had to create an emulator of the PDP in their university according to the specifications that were in the magazine. Finally, when you finish writing it contacted MITS to sell, thanks to the business Bill Gates dropped out of college (with the resulting anger of their parents) and Microsoft was born (in the attached image you can see first logo). 
At that time the programming of a microcomputer is not like now. That is, if you want to do a program for Windows, Linux or Mac (to take home the three most important platforms) usually work on the same platform that develop, but during the 70 (and also for much of the 80), all development work was done in minicomputers such as PDP (where you have to right a picture of what was a gadget for those) or already in the 80 machines Sun. And as the machines were expensive, small companies without resources such as Microsoft could not buy one of these but had to hire computer time to companies that leased their mainframes. Therefore, to save costs, all work that may be made on paper are made to minimize the computation time required. 
The Altair was not the first personal computer in the world, had already been previous prototypes and designs both large companies as electronics enthusiasts. But the Altair was, we might say so, the first popular computer, the first having a company behind which it could ask that you send the components to get it mounted you or paying a premium, and mounted. Here you can see, in fact, a notice of the time in which appears a kind of office with several computers, including the Altair. MITS was also at that time, the only one you sold a programming language that you could start doing things "easily." Include Microsoft BASIC was not cheap, apart from paying for the program needed to buy memory modules because with that came standard on the Altair was not working. So in the early stages of symbiosis between MITS and Microsoft was total. Microsoft BASIC that could be purchased with the MITS and in fact was the only programming language available in by far the best-selling computer in 1975 made the Microsoft BASIC became the standard BASIC for microcomputers, and so other companies that started and wanted to have a BASIC compatible with the Microsoft began to knock the company of Bill Gates. So much so that while Microsoft was at first greatly benefit by advertising by MITS with Altair, the end of the year was the opposite, many Altairs MITS sold by it was the simplest and cheapest way to get Microsoft BASIC.
However, since then a shadow on those threatening the growth of Microsoft as a company: piracy. To understand the problem and the letter from Bill Gates must explain what the mentality of the time. On the one hand, in those time there was a software industry as such, or at least nothing like what we know today as the software industry. In large systems, it was usually the same computer manufacturer providing all the software utilities you might need, so this was nothing more than a value added hardware rather than a separate product value per se . And if the customer needed something more or something different, I could hire someone (either internal to the hardware manufacturer or a third party) will make the customized application.
Since there were no software packages as we know them today, in general the source code was not as protected as it is today, and initiatives such as the free software did not make sense. Let's say AT & T gave a license UNIX from which it was asked, along with their source code. And that was quite common. The business was in the hardware, not software.
And if we talk over the Homebrew, a meeting of computer enthusiasts where there was the hacker spirit of sharing knowledge, if someone had a program and someone else needed it, share it was normal. Regardless of whether someone had paid for it. A MITS certainly did not care. They made money selling hardware, and pay or not to Microsoft BASIC extensions still need memory to run it, so they could all be the same.
But only if Microsoft made money selling software, so that the exchange of pirated copies (or worse, pirate sales) revenue was impeded and prevented its growth (at least that's what I thought Bill Gates). Maybe if someone here has had an 8-bit computer end to understand what the problem. That is, if you had a Spectrum, an Amstrad or Commodore, the BASIC ROM will come in and the computer manufacturer had to pay Microsoft (or whatever) for him, right? Yes, but in the middle of the 70-a-chip ROM was very expensive, so it did not come in BASIC but if you had wanted to use it into RAM (and therefore need much more than that it brought Altair series).
How did Microsoft that piracy was doing so much damage? Very simple. Bill Gates assumed (always gave him that very well) that if someone bought one and paid Altair memory expansion to 4 kilobytes (yes, a marimba in your current operating system takes over) was not necessarily because that person wanted to use their BASIC. but if you looked BASIC sales and sales of memory expansion, you saw that were sold many more memory than licenses of BASIC. Therefore, all these people were getting a free BASIC, or at least paying someone to not them, the rightful creators of the program.
course, why would people want to extend your RAM if it is not running Microsoft software? However, something was right. Your BASIC had become the standard and among fans, especially those with a Altair, circulated numerous small programs in BASIC that they needed an interpreter to run. These little programs are published in magazines as published by the Homebrew Computer Club. And that's why Bill Gates so he decided to write a letter to the magazine to make representations. My translation of the letter (which you have attached here also scanned original) is:
An open letter to fans
For me, the main current obstacle is the lack microcomputer market of good software courses, books the subject and the same software. Without good software and programming without homeowners know, a microcomputer is useless. Will quality software written for microcomputers?
almost a year ago, Paul Allen and I, hoping to expand the microcomputer market, hired Monte Davidoff and developed Altair BASIC. Although initial work took us only two months, we three have spent the remainder of the documentation work, improving and adding new features to BASIC. Now we have 4K, 8K, EXTENDED and DISK BASIC. The economic value of computer time needed for all that exceeds $ 40,000.
The reactions we have received hundreds of people who claim to use BASIC have been all positive. But there are two surprising aspects, namely: 1) Most of these "users" never bought BASIC (less than 10% of all Altair owners have bought a BASIC), and 2) The amount of royalties we have received from sales of the users make the time spent on Altair BASIC was paid less than $ 2 an hour.
Why does this happen? Like most users should have understood already, most have robbed our software. You have to pay for the hardware, but software is something that can be shared. Who cares if the people who worked on it was paid?
Is this fair? One thing you can not use software is stealing MITS technical support if you have problems. MITS does not make money selling software. The royalty that goes for us has to pay also the manual, the tape and everything else. Therefore, what you do is to prevent write more quality software. Who can afford to do professional work for nothing? The fact is that no one besides us has invested heavily in software for microcomputers. We have written a version of BASIC for the 6800, and are writing 8080 APL and 6800 APL, but there is little incentive for this software is available for the microcomputer market. Directly, which are doing is stealing.
And what about the people who sells pirated copies of Altair BASIC? Are not they earning money with software for microcomputers? Yes, but as the end we do not get anything in the long run we all lose. Are these people who give the microcomputer market a bad name, and should be expelled from any gathering of fans to occur.
letters would appreciate anyone who would pay for your software, or have any suggestions or comments. Just write me at 1180 Alvarado SE, # 114, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 87108. I would love to be able to hire ten programmers and flooding the market microcomputer with good software.
Senior partner Bill Gates, Micro-Soft
Well, what would come next? Many people, after reading this letter, decided to pay the requested license Microsoft BASIC. Until then, when someone made a normal program is to publish it so that everyone could copy and try. Therefore, if people share their programs, and you need a BASIC interpreter to run those programs that everyone shares, it is normal for someone that also provided interpreter. That is, it was a problem of mentality, because the hardware is something we can touch, you can weigh, can be measured, has a physical basis and therefore have to pay for it. But the software belongs to the world of ideas, y. .. "Pay for ideas? Especially when someone already offering it to you for free?
Of course, this letter also raised the ire of many others. Nobody likes being called a thief, especially when you never knew you had to pay for something you've caught free and also think that something should be free anyway. Bill Gates was invited to participate in talks about the Homebrew to defend its position, and apart from that and get a greater awareness of the commercial software must be paid, low real importance is this event. But, as symbolic importance, few more relevant facts than this ...
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