Saved Altair 4K BASIC

From: Paul Braun <nerdware_at_laidbak.com>
Date: Tue Nov 10 22:57:28 1998

Date sent: Mon, 09 Nov 1998 14:30:31 -0600
Send reply to: classiccmp_at_u.washington.edu
From: John Foust <jfoust_at_threedee.com>
To: "Discussion re-collecting of classic computers" <classiccmp_at_u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: Saved Altair 4K BASIC


> There's no reason for him to surrender the copyright; we could
> merely ask for permission to redistribute. I think the PR aspect
> would be a two-edged sword, though - the open source movement
> would have a field day with the notion that Gates finally came
> around and now allows free distribution of one of his products,
> yet I'm sure Microsoft's PR agency could get some mileage from
> his benevolence to the classic computer community.
>

My experience (and knowledge gained from talking to Bob Cringely) is that
Bill's PR machine is trained from birth to say "No." and "I'm sorry, but there's
no way in hell you can talk to Bill."

You can try, but I'm pretty sure your requests will go through several layers of
filtering and firewalls and end up in "File 13" without anyone actually reading it
or bringing it to Chairman Bill's attention. I'm pretty sure that goodwill to the
computer hobbyist is the furthest thing from his mind.

Good luck.








Paul Braun
NerdWare -- The History of the PC and the Nerds who brought it to you.
nerdware_at_laidbak.com
www.laidbak.com/nerdware
Received on Tue Nov 10 1998 - 22:57:28 GMT