"An Open Letter to Hobbyists" is a 1976 open letter written by Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, to early personal computer hobbyists, in which Gates expresses dismay at the rampant software piracy taking place in the hobbyist community, particularly with regard to his company's software.
In the letter, Gates expressed frustration with most computer hobbyists who were using his company's Altair BASIC software without having paid for it. He asserted that such widespread unauthorized copying in effect discouraged developers from investing time and money in creating high-quality software. He cited the unfairness of gaining the benefits of software authors' time, effort, and capital without paying them as a rationale for refusing to publish the machine code for his company's flagship product, thereby making it available to lower-income hobbyists who could have borrowed such program listings from their local library and entered the program into their hobby computer by data entry.
and 24 Related for: An Open Letter to Hobbyists information
Anopenletter is a letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed...
unbundling hardware and software. Bill Gates' "Open LettertoHobbyists" in 1976 decried computer hobbyists' rampant copyright infringement of software, particularly...
being widely copied and distributed. In February 1976, he wrote AnOpenLettertoHobbyists in the MITS newsletter in which he asserted that more than 90%...
reactor to the outside, thus "travelling wave". In September 2015, TerraPower signed an agreement with state-owned China National Nuclear Corporation to build...
of an intention to give, not a legal contract. On the Giving Pledge's website, each individual or couple writes a letter explaining why they chose to give...
Breakthrough Energy agreed to join an investors syndicate providing $80 million in capital to Verdox, Inc., a startup company attempting to scale a new carbon...
from 1995 an 11% compound annual return, and as of 2014 had 100 employees working under his direction. In 2021, Cascade drew attention due to allegations...
launched. To cope with the potential for an increase in demand for products and services, Microsoft opened a number of "holiday stores" across the U.S. to complement...
Investment and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation although Gates uses it to support the Foundation's projects. Areas of research and investment include...
happy to take a half-billion in sweet, sweet US military money to 'increase lethality'". The Register. "Microsoft announces Project Mu, anopen-source...
sold eMotion LLC, its media management division, toOpen Text Corporation. In May 2009, Corbis opened the Sygma Preservation and Access Facility outside...
pp. 81–83. ISBN 0-471-56886-4. Gates, Bill (January 1976). "AnOpenLetterToHobbyists". Homebrew Computer Club Newsletter. 2 (1). Mountain View, California:...
[failed verification] Free and open-source software portal History of free and open-source software OpenLettertoHobbyists Stallman, Richard (March 1985)...
Homebrew meeting, urging recipients to make more copies. Gates responded in 1976 with a strongly worded OpenLettertoHobbyists that accused the copiers of theft...
OER Project is a non-profit open educational resources provider co-founded in 2011 by Bill Gates and David Christian. Originally known as Big History Project...
only reduce emissions from coal and gas used to produce electricity, but also allow an accelerated shift to zero emission transportation like electric cars...
BBC BASIC Integer BASIC Locomotive BASIC AnOpenLettertoHobbyists Tiny BASIC Sources differ in regard to the first NCR data entry terminal integrating...
individual packs. An important historical event that led to the expansion of the market for retail software was the OpenLettertoHobbyists by Bill Gates...
subject to widespread unauthorized copying, Microsoft founder Bill Gates wrote anOpenLettertoHobbyists that openly accused many hobbyists of stealing...
a second exhibition match to raise money for the Roger Federer Foundation. The match was played on 21 December 2014 in an again sold out Hallenstadion...
"How to Prevent the Next Pandemic by Bill Gates review – a germ of an idea". TheGuardian.com. May 29, 2022. Appleyard, Bryan (May 8, 2022). "How to Prevent...
Gates made this more formal, writing "AnOpenLettertoHobbyists", complaining that "As the majority of hobbyists must be aware, most of you steal your...
Global Information