A bit of computer history...

[Shadowwolf]

I know most of you probably weren't around for the birth of the computer and the start of the IT industry as we all know of today, so I thought perhaps I would share with you a bit of history in computers.

Here is a letter written by Bill Gates to the Homebrew Computer Club (the founding group of techies that basically created the computer) where he outlines his argument for selling software, as prior to Bill Gates, all software in computers was passed around for free. No one considered intellectual property or anything of the sort, people made software, others took it, improved it, and it went on like that. Bill Gates kick started the whole software market with his business desires.

To me, history is a fun thing. I enjoy seeing how things started or took place because I believe it gives us a glimpse of our future as well as serves as a warning to us all about what bad happenings need not be repeated and what events may have led up to that. I thought it would be nice for some of you who didnt know some of this stuff to see some of the origins of what has become something that gets taken for granted. =)

[Lynette]

Shadow, that's awesome stuff.

Years ago, I remember watching tv and stumbled upon a documentary on PBS called Triumph of the Nerds.  It presented the timeline of the industry and examined many of the great decisions (and poor ones too) made during this era. 

http://www.shoppbs.org/product/index.jsp?productId=1978852&cp=&sr=1&kw=nerds&origkw=triumph+of+the+nerds&parentPage=search

[Kothnok]

As someone trying to make a living at writing code, I understand quite well how difficult it can be to get people to think that good software needs to be supported rather than just shared.  I feel much akin to the "starving artist" as my line of work is half engineering and half art. Software that has more engineering will be difficult to use and not pleasant at all.  Stuff that's more artsy will be bug ridden messes. I good balance of both sets apart the good software from the mediocre stuff.

I copied a lot of stuff growing up because I couldn't afford it otherwise.  A friend and I collaborated and pooled everything we bought so that we both could play each others games.  I fondly remember the old copy protection schemes of code wheels and manuals with codes sprinkled throughout that you would occasionally need to enter. Photocopiers were my friends in those days -- back in the sneaker-net days.