The home computers of the Seventies and Eighties often came with the code, and users were encouraged to learn assembler and Basic, and to write their own code. The gradual change away from the perception of software as a tool to be understood and tinkered with, to allow users a better understanding of the machines that they had paid for, has often been dated, rightly or wrongly, to the famous Open Letter to Hobbyists (digibarn.com/collections/newsletters/homebrew/V2_01/gatesletter.html) written by Bill Gates, “General Partner, Micro-Soft”, on 3 February, 1976, in which Gates declared:
“As the majority of hobbyists must be aware, most of you steal your software. Hardware must be paid for, but software is something to share. Who cares if the people who worked on it get paid?”. Forlornly, he then asked:…
