Open Letter to Hobbyists

The Open Letter to Hobbyists is an open letter, the beginning of 1976 by Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, was written to amateur computer users and reprinted in various computer magazines. The purpose of this letter is the most important milestone in the development and distribution of proprietary ( manufacturer-specific ) software on the home computer market. Similarly, it is referred to by some as an important milestone in the development of free software, because it is stated in the letter that every hobby users should pay for professionally developed software because he was a thief software otherwise.

Bill Gates pushes the letter from his frustration over the sales figures of Altair BASIC. He complained that although he had received a lot of praise for its development, which have now reached a cost of $ 40,000, but only a small portion of all the laudatory users really bought his product, resulting in an hourly wage of $ 2 resulting.

Gates complained that the proliferation of unauthorized copies have the effect of discouraging the developers continue to spend time and money to invest in order to write professional software. Man cheating this to giving proper fee.

" Who can afford to do professional work for nothing? "

"Who can afford to pay professional work without pay? "