Tuesday, October 31, 2006
The Hobbyist Market
A letter by Bill Gates co-founder of Microsoft talks on how the hobby market is lacking on creating good software and how users of these programs love to steal their hard work. He and his partner Paul Allen had understood that the price of computers would soon drop to the point that selling software for them would be a profitable business. Gates believed that by providing a BASIC interpreter for the new computer they could make it more attractive to hobbyists. Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code is one of the earliest and simplest high-level programming languages. For example, Microsoft Word and Excel both come with a version of BASIC with which users can write programs to customize and automate these applications.
“Most of these "users" never bought BASIC (less than 10% of all Altair owners have bought BASIC).”
He mentions on how people just like to steal and use their program but do not even have the dignity to go out and buy it.
"What about the guys who re-sell Altair BASIC, aren't they making money on hobby software? Yes, but those who have been reported to us may lose in the end. They are the ones who give hobbyists a bad name, and should be kicked out of any club meeting they show up at.”
He mentions on how people just like to steal and use their program but do not even have the dignity to go out and buy it.
"What about the guys who re-sell Altair BASIC, aren't they making money on hobby software? Yes, but those who have been reported to us may lose in the end. They are the ones who give hobbyists a bad name, and should be kicked out of any club meeting they show up at.”
