4 ms·

What they said in 1976 was that they wanted to be "able to hire ten programmers and deluge the hobby market with good software." So more than BASIC, but without

by enf 12y ago

What they said in 1976 was that they wanted to be "able to hire ten programmers and deluge the hobby market with good software." So more than BASIC, but without the notion that the computer software market would grow to encompass everyone.

kens 12y ago
The letter containing that statement is a key to understanding Microsoft's goals and their success (in particular the key innovation that people should pay for software). If you haven't read it, I recommend taking a look: http://www.lettersofnote.com/2009/10/most-of-you-steal-your-software.html http://www.lettersofnote.com/2009/10/most-of-you-steal-your-...
- frabcus 12y ago
  Reading that letter for the first time in years (and having worked on a commercial startup for the first time since)... My main question is, how could Bill Gates afford the $40,000 of computer time? That's quite a lot of capital at the time.
  - Iftheshoefits 12y ago
    Because like the (vast) majority of very successful people he started from a position of financial independence and social connections that absolutely are far beyond the norm. Becoming very financially successful is very much more about what family you were born into and fortune than it is about skill or talent, although the latter certainly still matter.
  - noblethrasher 12y ago
    I thought that they wrote the BASIC interpreter using the machines in Harvard's computer lab.
    - cpr 12y ago
      Yes, they wrote an assembler/linker/simulator on old Harv-10. I was there bugging him late at night, asking why he was wasting his time on silly hobbyist machines when we had the whole Arpanet at our fingertips. (All 20-30 machines at that point.) ;/) Even though lots of folks were using the -10 for commercial projects on the side, Harvard made him give all the Altair money back to avoid disciplinary action. Wasn't really fair. So, yeah, some of us were blind at the time. In my defense, I did help Carl Helmers get Byte Magazine off the ground a year later or so, along with my high school buddy Dan Fylstra who went on to create VisiCorp to commercialize the original VisiCalc.

by enf 12y ago

kens 12y ago

The letter containing that statement is a key to understanding Microsoft's goals and their success (in particular the key innovation that people should pay for software). If you haven't read it, I recommend taking a look: http://www.lettersofnote.com/2009/10/most-of-you-steal-your-software.html http://www.lettersofnote.com/2009/10/most-of-you-steal-your-...

frabcus 12y ago
Reading that letter for the first time in years (and having worked on a commercial startup for the first time since)... My main question is, how could Bill Gates afford the $40,000 of computer time? That's quite a lot of capital at the time.
- Iftheshoefits 12y ago
  Because like the (vast) majority of very successful people he started from a position of financial independence and social connections that absolutely are far beyond the norm. Becoming very financially successful is very much more about what family you were born into and fortune than it is about skill or talent, although the latter certainly still matter.
- noblethrasher 12y ago
  I thought that they wrote the BASIC interpreter using the machines in Harvard's computer lab.
  - cpr 12y ago
    Yes, they wrote an assembler/linker/simulator on old Harv-10. I was there bugging him late at night, asking why he was wasting his time on silly hobbyist machines when we had the whole Arpanet at our fingertips. (All 20-30 machines at that point.) ;/) Even though lots of folks were using the -10 for commercial projects on the side, Harvard made him give all the Altair money back to avoid disciplinary action. Wasn't really fair. So, yeah, some of us were blind at the time. In my defense, I did help Carl Helmers get Byte Magazine off the ground a year later or so, along with my high school buddy Dan Fylstra who went on to create VisiCorp to commercialize the original VisiCalc.