BASIC

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In his book ''Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution,'' Steven Levy describes the early history of home computing and the development of BASICs for the Altair and its immediate successors as a confrontation between an ethic of openness and the sort of corporate powers that were "a foe of the Hacker Ethic." (p. 227)

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This portrayal has helped to set up what is often remembered as the first major clash between free software and the corporate force of Microsoft: the "Open Letter to Hobbyists." Bill Gates wrote this confrontational letter in February 1976, declaring: "As the majority of hobbyists must be aware, most of you steal your software." It ran in the ''Altair Users' Newsletter'' as well as the newsletter of the Homebrew Computer Club. The letter spurred hundreds of responses, public and personal, causing the major early controversey in home computing. Many see it as the beginning of Microsoft's career of unfair dealing and of embracing and extending. Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson wrote in 2001, during the antitrust case against the company, that "Microsoft is a company with an institutional disdain for both the truth and for rules of law that lesser entities must respect." He was hardly the only one with this view at that point. Did Microsoft's turn to the dark side begin with this letter to hobbyists?

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This portrayal has helped to set up what is often remembered as the first major clash between free software and the corporate force of Microsoft: the "Open Letter to Hobbyists." Bill Gates wrote this confrontational letter in February 1976, declaring: "As the majority of hobbyists must be aware, most of you steal your software." It ran in the ''Altair Users' Newsletter'' as well as the newsletter of the Homebrew Computer Club. The letter spurred hundreds of responses, public and personal, causing the major early controversey in home computing. Many see it as the beginning of Microsoft's career of unfair dealing and of embracing and extending, a practice where the company takes existing tools and ideas and creates their own version for competitive advantage. Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson wrote in 2001, during the antitrust case against the company, that "Microsoft is a company with an institutional disdain for both the truth and for rules of law that lesser entities must respect." He was hardly the only one with this view at that point. Did Microsoft's turn to the dark side begin with this letter to hobbyists?

There are a few complications to the most popular version of this early clash, and to simplistic assignment of good and evil roles, just as there are complications in considering Altair BASIC as completely bad and TinyBASIC as pure and just.

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@@ Line 120: / Line 120: @@
 In his book ''Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution,'' Steven Levy describes the early history of home computing and the development of BASICs for the Altair and its immediate successors as a confrontation between an ethic of openness and the sort of corporate powers that were "a foe of the Hacker Ethic." (p. 227)
-This portrayal has helped to set up what is often remembered as the first major clash between free software and the corporate force of Microsoft: the "Open Letter to Hobbyists." Bill Gates wrote this confrontational letter in February 1976, declaring: "As the majority of hobbyists must be aware, most of you steal your software." It ran in the ''Altair Users' Newsletter'' as well as the newsletter of the Homebrew Computer Club. The letter spurred hundreds of responses, public and personal, causing the major early controversey in home computing. Many see it as the beginning of Microsoft's career of unfair dealing and of embracing and extending. Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson wrote in 2001, during the antitrust case against the company, that "Microsoft is a company with an institutional disdain for both the truth and for rules of law that lesser entities must respect." He was hardly the only one with this view at that point. Did Microsoft's turn to the dark side begin with this letter to hobbyists?
+This portrayal has helped to set up what is often remembered as the first major clash between free software and the corporate force of Microsoft: the "Open Letter to Hobbyists." Bill Gates wrote this confrontational letter in February 1976, declaring: "As the majority of hobbyists must be aware, most of you steal your software." It ran in the ''Altair Users' Newsletter'' as well as the newsletter of the Homebrew Computer Club. The letter spurred hundreds of responses, public and personal, causing the major early controversey in home computing. Many see it as the beginning of Microsoft's career of unfair dealing and of embracing and extending, a practice where the company takes existing tools and ideas and creates their own version for competitive advantage. Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson wrote in 2001, during the antitrust case against the company, that "Microsoft is a company with an institutional disdain for both the truth and for rules of law that lesser entities must respect." He was hardly the only one with this view at that point. Did Microsoft's turn to the dark side begin with this letter to hobbyists?
 There are a few complications to the most popular version of this early clash, and to simplistic assignment of good and evil roles, just as there are complications in considering Altair BASIC as completely bad and TinyBASIC as pure and just.