Re: Byte Magazine: 18 Vintage issues, 1985-1986

[Michael Black <blackm00@CAM.ORG>]

On Wed, 28 Jul 1999, Bob Headrick wrote:

> 
> caught that too, but thought it would be impolite to say anything.
> >
> > The first issue of Byte was of course the September 1975 issue, of which I
> > actually have two copies.
> >
> > If we're talking about rarities, I actually had the January 1975 issue of
> > Popular Electroanics (the real one, not the one masquerading as such on
> > the newsstands today), which of course had the Altair 8800 on the cover.
> 
> I would really like to find the issue of Popular Electronics where Bill
> Gates (or was it Paul Allen?) was bitterly complaining in a letter to the
> editor that so many people had pirated their Microsoft Basic that their
> effort in developing it only amounted to $2.00 per hour.  It must have been
> in '77-79 somewhere....
> 
>  - Bob Headrick
> 
I think someone posted Bill Gates letter to alt.folklore.computers at one
point, and if so, I think I've seen it in the past year.

I'm sure I've seen the letter, not just a reference to it.  But I thought
it was in Byte, and more like 75 or 76,  But it was an open letter, so I
assumed it went out to a lot of places, some of which might have published
it.  I"m sure it was titled "An Open Letter to Computer Hobbyists" and was
written by Swiftwater Bill.

However, I know I went looking through my Bytes and I can't find the
letter.  So either I didn't look carefully enough, it was in another
magazine, or I never actually saw the letter as originally printed.

         Michael