On Tue, 10 Nov 1998, cswiger wrote:
> > At 03:49 PM 11/9/98 -0500, you wrote:
> > > By William Henry Gates III
> > > ... Nothing would please me more than
>
> Jus' the facts, mam.
>
> The open letter to hobbyists was printed in the February, 1976
> (vol. 1, issue 9) of the MITS "Computer Notes". Can't recall
> if it was published in BYTE or not.
It was also published in the January 1976 (Vol. 2, #1) issue of the
Homebrew Computer Club Newsletter. The following month's issue yielded
this published reply to Bill's letter:
20 February 1976
Mike Hayes, MNH-AE
P.O. Box 167
Port Orchard, Wash. 98366
Bill Gates, Micro-Soft
1180 Alvarado S.E. No. 114
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87108
Regarding your Letter of 3 February 1976 Appearing in Homebrew Computer
Club Newsletter Vol. 2 No. 1
Dear Mr. Gates:
Your software has helped many hobbyists, and you are to be thanked for it!
However, you should not blame the hobbyists for your own inadequate
marketing of it. You GAVE it away; none stole it from you. Now you're
asking for software welfare so you can give more away. If $2/hr is all
you got for your efforts, then $2/hr is what they're worth on the free
market. You should either change your product or change your way of
selling it, if you feel it'll bring more money. I'm sure that if I were
MITS, I'd be chuckling all the way to the bank over the deal I got from
you. After all, your marvelous software has allowed them to sell a
computer which, without it, none would have touched, except as a
frustrating novelty item.
I congratulate you and MITS upon being major influences in the founding of
the computer hobby market. It's too bad you didn't get the profit from
your efforts that they did from theirs, but that's YOUR fault, not theirs
or the hobbyists. You underpriced your product.
If you want monetary reward for your software creations, you had better
stop writing code for a minute and think a little harder about your market
and how you are going to sell to it. And, by the way, calling all of your
potential future customers *thieves* is perhaps "uncool" marketing
strategy!
Sincerely yours,
Dr. Michael N. Hayes (signed)
MNH-Applied Electronics
Copy to: R. Reiling
Homebrew Computer Club
Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar_at_siconic.com
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Received on Tue Nov 10 1998 - 14:39:30 GMT