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Microsoft’s original source code

(www.gatesnotes.com)
617 points EvgeniyZh | 2 comments | 03 Apr 25 21:49 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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breadwinner ◴[03 Apr 25 22:14 UTC] No.43576119[source]▶
Microsoft got its start by Bill Gates doing some dumpster diving. Back then software wasn't seen as valuable thing, only hardware was. Source code wasn't something to be protected, so printouts of code would be thrown in trash. And that's where Bill Gates found the source code for Basic interpreter, which he ported and it became the first Microsoft product.

https://americanhistory.si.edu/comphist/gates.htm

https://paulallen.com/Futurist/Microsoft.aspx

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shmerl ◴[03 Apr 25 22:35 UTC] No.43576295[source]▶
Don't forget the infamous Open Letter to Hobbyists that followed:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Open_Letter_to_Hobbyists

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1. ThrowawayR2 ◴[04 Apr 25 02:07 UTC] No.43577613[source]▶
And he won that argument. The steady movement away from Free Software licenses to shared source is because developers want to get paid by people using the code they created just as Gates describes in the letter. Even Bruce Perens is trying to hammer out a Post-Open Source license that's proprietary in all but name.
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2. shmerl ◴[04 Apr 25 02:53 UTC] No.43577874[source]▶
For his goals at the time, but not really in the long run. Open development ecosystems like Rust are way better thriving than any closed ones.